Nuclear fusion breakthrough: US lab achieves multiple ignitions

Fusion research at the National Ignition Facility (image: Jason Laurea / NIF)

Nuclear fusion: Is infinite energy on the horizon? US researchers have achieved fusion reactions that produce more energy than they consume, and have repeated the ignition several times. Funding for three new laser fusion research centres has been announced by the US government.

Nicole Dominikowski (translated by Nicole Dominikowski), Published 12/25/2023 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 ...

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the USA have achieved successful fusion reactions that release more energy than is consumed. The ignitions were repeated several times, indicating a significant step towards developing fusion power plants. In December 2022, the scientists were already able to trigger an ignition, but in the latest experiments they managed to reproduce the fusion reactions in a targeted way.

I’m feeling pretty good. I think we should all be proud of the achievement.

- Richard Town, a physicist who heads the lab’s inertial-confinement fusion science programme at the LLNL

During the experiments, 192 laser beams were used to bombard a frozen pellet of deuterium and tritium, resulting in the fusion of the isotopes and the release of helium and a significant amount of energy. Originally designed for reproducing and analysing thermonuclear explosions, the NIF's success in fusion research has led to new investments in the technology.

The US government has recently announced funding for three new laser fusion research centres. It is intended to drive the development of more efficient laser systems and processes. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the largest laser facility in the world.

Laser systems are used to create fusion reactions (image: Jason Laurea / NIF)

The system can deliver up to 1.9 megajoules of energy using 192 laser beams. During the experiments at the NIF, fusion reactions generate up to 4 megajoules of energy, equivalent to the energy released by the explosion of 10 kilograms of TNT. The researchers are currently working on improving the laser system's efficiency, which could reduce the costs of fusion power plants.

In summary, the development of fusion power plants is a lengthy process. However, the success of the NIF is an important step in this direction, and new investments in laser fusion give hope that fusion power plants could become a reality in the coming decades. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory video provides an accurate depiction of a fusion reaction.