More energy has been created than put into a nuclear fusion reactor, scientists at Lawrence Livermore’s national ignition facility (NIT) in California have reported.
Some 2.1 megajoules of energy was used for the initial reaction and with 2.5 megajoules produced as a result, a huge step both psychologically and technically in the pursuit of limitless clean power, said experts.
“Initial diagnostic data suggests another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility. However, the exact yield is still being determined and we can’t confirm that it is over the threshold at this time” said a spokesperson at NIT.
Fusion instead of splitting atoms, like fission, combines hydrogen atoms to create huge amounts of energy, mimicking the suns process.
Importantly, nuclear fusion doesn’t require uranium but rather hydrogen and occasionally lithium meaning these results could alter the mining industry with sustainable processes coming to the forefront.
Requiring sustained extreme conditions, such as temperatures as hot as the sun, the process is still far from being commercial and scientists remain sceptical about how this would transfer to a wider market.
“There is a clear path to a power plant here” said Nicholas Hawker, CEO of First Light Fusion, but he remained cautious that the US based plant is too expensive for smaller companies to copy.
Much of global fusion research uses tokamak reactors including Oxford based Tokamak Energy, but the scientists at Lawrence Livermore used an alternative process called ‘inertial fusion’.
The US Department of Energy is hosting a press conference tomorrow with more details on the results.