America nuclear fusion development is expected to make a breakthrough, Financial Times quoted informed sources, American scientists have achieved good results in the pursuit of zero-carbon energy, for the first time achieved net energy gain in nuclear fusion reaction, nuclear fusion reaction issued about 2.5 Megajoules of energy.
Since the 1950s, physicists around the world have always wanted to create an " artificial sun " on the earth, using nearly endless clean energy to supply power, but so far no one has achieved power generation exceeding energy consumption, this milestone is also known as net energy gain (net energy gain) or target gain.
But the laboratories under the U.S. Department of Energy may be getting closer to the goal. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses the world's largest high-energy laser beam to aim at a tiny hydrogen fuel sphere of hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium through inertial confinement fusion, and heats it to a high temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, thereby triggering nuclear fusion. Fusion reactions under the DoE's umbrella emit about 2.5 megajoules of energy, about 120 percent of the 2.1 megajoules of laser energy, the sources said, adding that the data is still being analyzed. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Undersecretary for Nuclear Security Jill Hruby said it was a major scientific breakthrough.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has confirmed that it has conducted a successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility . Although the results are still being analyzed, preliminary information analysis indicates that this is another successful experiment of this equipment, but it is still While confirming the final performance, we are currently unable to confirm whether it exceeds the target. People familiar with
said that the energy output was higher than expected, but it also damaged some detection equipment and complicated the analysis. The National Ignition Facility, which cost $3.5 billion, was initially used to test the nuclear weapon through simulated explosions, but it was eventually used to advance nuclear fusion research. Last year, the nuclear fusion reaction of the device released 1.37 megajoules of energy, the closest net energy gain experiment chamber, which was about 70% of the laser power at that time. When
launched the new White House fusion energy strategy this year, Congressman Don Beyer, chair of the bipartisan Fusion Caucus, described the technology as the holy grail of clean energy.
(first image source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
