U.S. government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of unlimited, carbon-free energy by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time, according to three people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment.
Physicists have been trying to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun since the 1950s, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which it process would help prove could provide a reliable, abundant alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear power.
The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion, in which a tiny sphere of hydrogen plasma is bombarded with the world’s largest laser, had made net energy gains in a fusion experiment over the past two weeks, the people said. . .
While many scientists believe fusion power plants are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore. Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste, and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a home for hundreds of years.
The US breakthrough comes as the world grapples with high energy prices and the need to quickly move away from burning fossil fuels to prevent average global temperatures from reaching dangerous levels. Through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration is plowing nearly $370 billion into new low-carbon energy subsidies in an effort to curb emissions and win a global race for next-generation clean technology.
The fusion reaction at the US government facility produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, which was about 120 percent of the 2.1 megajoules of energy in the lasers, those with knowledge of the results said, adding that the data was still being analyzed.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced that Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Secretary of State for Nuclear Safety Jill Hruby will announce “a major scientific breakthrough” at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Tuesday. The department declined to comment further.
The lab confirmed that a successful experiment had recently taken place at its National Ignition Facility, but said analysis of the results was ongoing.
“The initial diagnostic data points to another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility. However, the exact yield is still being determined and we cannot confirm at this time that it exceeds the threshold. “That analysis is in progress, so publishing the information … before that process is complete would be inaccurate.”
Two of the people with knowledge of the results said the energy output was greater than expected, which damaged some diagnostic equipment, making analysis more difficult. The breakthrough was already widely discussed by scientists, the people added.
“If this is confirmed, we are witnessing a historic moment,” said Dr. Arthur Turrell, a plasma physicist whose book The Star Builders charts the effort to achieve fusion power. “Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy than has been put into it since the 1950s, and Lawrence Livermore researchers seem to have finally and absolutely broken this decades-old goal.”
The $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility was designed primarily to test nuclear weapons by simulating explosions, but has since been used to advance fusion energy research. It came closest to net energy gain in the world last year when it produced 1.37 megajoules from a fusion reaction, which was about 70 percent of the energy in the lasers on that occasion.
At the launch of a new White House fusion energy strategy this year, Congressman Don Beyer, chairman of the bipartisan fusion energy caucus, described the technology as the “holy grail” of clean energy, adding: “Fusion has the potential to lift more citizens of the world out of poverty than anything since the invention of fire.”
Most fusion research focuses on another approach known as magnetic confinement fusion, in which the hydrogen fuel is held in place by powerful magnets and heated to extreme temperatures so that the atomic nuclei fuse.
Historically, that science has been done by large, government-funded labs, such as the Joint European Torus in Oxford, but private companies promising to deliver fusion power in the 2030s have also flooded in recent years.
In the 12 months to the end of June, fusion firms raised $2.83 billion in investment, according to the Fusion Industry Association, bringing total private sector investment to date to nearly $4.9 billion.
Nicholas Hawker, CEO of Oxford-based start-up First Light Fusion, which is developing an approach similar to NIF’s, described the potential breakthrough as “groundbreaking”.
“It couldn’t be deeper for fusion energy,” he said.
Additional reporting by David Sheppard and Derek Brower
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