nuclear-news

Fusion breakthrough thrills physicists, but won’t power your home soon.

A nuclear fusion milestone (with frickin’ laser beams!) is a big deal.
Alas, it could be decades before fusion might actually help clean up our
energy system. A reported breakthrough in fusion energy is generating
enormous excitement amongst scientists and the general public alike — but
you might not want to bet on fusion providing usable energy during your
lifetime.

Experimental results set to be announced by the U.S. Department
of Energy on Tuesday are being hyped as potentially heralding a new era of
zero-carbon energy from the power of a controlled fusion reaction, the same
reaction that powers our sun. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has
evidence of a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time,
according to people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent
experiment, as first reported by the Financial Times. The lab confirmed to
the paper that a successful experiment had recently been conducted at its
National Ignition Facility but said analysis of the results was ongoing.

 Canary Media 13th Dec 2022

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/nuclear/fusion-breakthrough-thrills-physicists-but-wont-power-your-home-soon

December 14, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology, USA