{"id":7488,"date":"2022-02-03T19:20:24","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T17:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=7488"},"modified":"2022-02-03T19:20:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T17:20:27","slug":"nuclear-fusion-us-one-step-closer-to-the-exhausted-energy-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=7488","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Fusion: US One Step Closer to the Exhausted Energy Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aiming at a small hydrogen capsule with the world’s most powerful laser, US Department of Energy researchers have achieved, even for a moment, an important goal on the road to producing inexhaustible, clean energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experiment by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California managed to trigger nuclear fusion reactions that were self-sustaining for a fraction of a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major achievement, since fusion reactions require extremely high temperature and pressure conditions and tend to fade almost instantaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heat released was greater than the heat delivered to the experiment by the laser, a condition that nuclear scientists call burning plasma, or free-acting plasma ignition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When you want to light a fire, you have to make sure it is hot enough so that the wood continues to burn on its own. It’s a good analogy for plasma ignition, where fusion begins to become self-sustaining, “said Alex Zilstra, co-author of a study published in the journal Nature entitled “Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion”, A.B. Zylstra, O.A.Hurricane, G.B. Zimmerman, (https: \/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-021-04281-w.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fusion reaction was maintained for 100 trillionths of a second, and the energy released corresponded to just nine nine-volt batteries. Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A total of 192 laser beams target a small capsule in the center of the metal sphere (Philip Saltonstall)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Fusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nuclear fusion, essentially the opposite of nuclear fission, is the reaction that energizes stars and thermonuclear bombs. Under conditions of extreme temperature and pressure, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms and release large amounts of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike fission, which uses uranium or other radioactive fuels, fusion can theoretically work with hydrogen isotopes from the sea and leave no hazardous nuclear waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fusion experiments have been performed around the world for years, but so far no one has been able to produce more energy than they consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of research organizations and companies around the world are working to commercialize fusion, a goal in which even the oil industry is investing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the experiment works<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory National Firewall (NIF), in operation since 2010, was created to study the safety of the US nuclear arsenal, as it can reach the extreme pressure and temperature conditions that would be recorded at the center of a nuclear explosion. Fusion experiments are simply a parallel, secondary activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The giant laser of the installation, which occupies the surface of three football fields, is divided into 192 beams that aim at the center of a metal sphere with a diameter of a few meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the center of the sphere, the bundles end up in a rubber capsule the size of a rubber band, which encloses a small bead the size of a peppercorn. Inside the sphere are the “fuels”, two hydrogen isotopes called deuterium and tritium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The hydrogen capsule is 2 mm in diameter (LLNL)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The pulse of the laser radiation evaporates the gold capsule, which emits X-rays which in turn press on the bead. The hydrogen is thus compressed until it exceeds 100 times the density of lead and heated to 100 million degrees Celsius, levels that allow thermonuclear reactions to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, fusion reactions in fuel provided most of the heat, so that fusion began to dominate over the heat supplied by humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this experiment, the fusion reactions produced 10 times more energy than required to heat the hydrogen capsule, but this amount was less than 10% of the energy consumed by the laser, as the efficiency of the process remains low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, achieving the long-term goal seems to take several more decades. Fusion energy is the Holy Grail of pure, inexhaustible energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aiming at a small hydrogen capsule with the world’s most powerful laser, US Department of Energy researchers have achieved, even for a moment, an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1168,2960],"tags":[2391,3278,215],"class_list":["post-7488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-technology","category-technology","tag-energy","tag-nuclear-fusion","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7493,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7488\/revisions\/7493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}