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Category: nuclear energy – Page 61

Net gain in fusion energy reported

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has today confirmed the achievement of “fusion ignition” at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) – a major scientific breakthrough, many decades in the making, which could pave the way to near-limitless clean power.

On 5th December, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. This first-of-its-kind feat will provide invaluable insights into the fusion energy process, which scientists have been attempting to develop for nearly a century.

Inside the target chamber of LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, 192 laser beams delivered more than 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy to a tiny fuel pellet to create the fusion ignition. These lasers heated the capsule to 100,000,000°C – more than six times hotter than the Sun’s core, and compressed it to more than 100 billion times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere. Under these unimaginable forces, the capsule would have imploded on itself, forcing its hydrogen atoms to fuse and release energy.

Physicists Say New Breakthrough Proves Fusion Power Is Possible

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory claim to have achieved the seemingly impossible: generate more energy with a fusion reaction than they put into it, potentially paving the way for a truly environmentally friendly and safe source of power.

Their experiment, which involved using the “world’s largest and highest energy laser system” at Livermore’s National Ignition Facility to blast light at small capsules of deuterium-tritium fuel, generated 20 percent more energy than the amount required to power the system.

Despite the modest energy output — the system generated enough power to boil around two to three kettles — the researchers are boldly predicting that it could represent a major turning point in the quest to turn fusion energy into a reality.

Finally! Nuclear fusion scientists achieved net energy production in a historic first

This new breakthrough opens the door to limitless clean energy.

The time has finally come. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are the first in the world to demonstrate net energy production from nuclear fusion.

In other words, theirs was the first ever nuclear fusion experiment to produce more energy than was required to run the experiment in the first place.

Researchers achieved the milestone, also known as fusion ignition, at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) during a controlled fusion experiment last Monday, Dec. 5, according to a statement from the US Department of Energy (DOE). They waited for peer-review results before revealing the results to the world.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

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U.S. to reveal scientific milestone on fusion energy

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) — The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday will announce that scientists at a national lab have made a breakthrough on fusion, the process that powers the sun and stars that one day could provide a cheap source of electricity, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have achieved a net energy gain for the first time, in a fusion experiment using lasers, one of the people said.

While the results are a milestone in a scientific quest that has been developing since at least the 1930s, the ratio of energy going into the reaction at Livermore to getting energy out of it needs to be about 100 times bigger to create a process producing commercial amounts of electricity, one of the sources said.

Breakthrough fusion power announcement expected tomorrow. Here’s what it means

Overnight, news broke that the National Ignition Facility, a U.S. government research lab, was the first to achieve net-positive nuclear fusion. When lasers hit the tiny fuel pellet, it created an explosion that released more energy than the lasers delivered.

For decades, fusion power has been just around the corner. Is this the moment we’ve all been waiting for?

Maybe.

Prof. Dr. Tony Donne, Ph.D. — Program Manager (CEO), EUROfusion — Fusion Energy For All Humanity

Fusion Energy For All Humanity — Prof Dr. Tony Donné Ph.D. — Program Manager (CEO), EUROfusion

Prof. Dr. Tony Donne, Ph.D. is Program Manager (CEO) of the EUROfusion (https://www.euro-fusion.org/) research consortium, a European consortium of 30 national fusion research institutes, in 26 EU countries, plus Switzerland and Ukraine, where he coordinates the work of over 4,000 scientists and engineers.

Dr. Donne trained as a physicist, obtaining his Masters in Experimental Physics at Utrecht University, his Ph.D. degree at the Free University of Amsterdam for work in the field of nuclear physics, and moved into fusion research right afterwards and has devoted a substantial part of his scientific career to the design and use of plasma diagnostics in a large range of fusion devices.

Prior to EUROfusion, Dr. Donne was head of the Fusion Physics Division at the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER) and responsible for the coordination of the nuclear fusion research in the Netherlands, where he coordinated Dutch fusion research as Director of fusion science and Acting Director.

Dr. Donne has also served as Professor in Diagnostics and Heating of Fusion Plasmas at Eindhoven University of Technology, Director of the Dutch-Russian Centre of Excellence on Fusion Physics and Technology, as well as Program Director of the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)-Netherlands consortium, and chair of the Coordination Committee of the International Tokamak Physics Activity under the auspices of the ITER project.

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US scientists reach long-awaited nuclear fusion breakthrough, source says

For the first time ever, US scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a source familiar with the project confirmed to CNN.

The US Department of Energy is expected to officially announce the breakthrough Tuesday.

The result of the experiment would be a massive step in a decadeslong quest to unleash an infinite source of clean energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. Researchers for decades have attempted to recreate nuclear fusion – replicating the fusion that powers the sun.

US achieves fusion breakthrough, making clean zero-carbon energy

The US government may have made a major scientific breakthrough in fusion energy, paving the way for creating a limitless supply of energy with zero carbon emissions or radioactive waste, The Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of a recent experiment’s results.

The fusion process is a landmark step of progress in the quest to achieve a limitless supply of environmentally-friendly energy.

According to The Financial Times, the US Energy Department will have US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Undersecretary for Nuclear Security Jill Hruby announce a “major scientific breakthrough” sometime on Tuesday.