A Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough
For the first time, researchers have produced net energy from a fusion reaction, promising further discovery in clean power and nuclear weapons stewardship.
The Milestone
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)—a major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power.
According to the department’s press release, on December 5, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion 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 historic, first-of-its kind achievement will provide unprecedented capability to support NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program and will provide invaluable insights into the prospects of clean fusion energy, which would be a game-changer for efforts to achieve the goal of a net-zero carbon economy,” the statement reads.
“This is a landmark achievement for the researchers and staff at the National Ignition Facility who have dedicated their careers to seeing fusion ignition become a reality, and this milestone will undoubtedly spark even more discovery,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
In a press conference to celebrate the success, Granholm said that fusion ignition is “one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century,″ and that the breakthrough “will go down in the history books.”
According to LLNL Director Dr. Kim Budil, although there are “very significant hurdles” to commercial use of fusion technology, advances in recent years mean the technology is likely to be widely used in “a few decades” rather than 50 or 60 years as previously expected.
DOE National Laboratory Makes History by Achieving Fusion Ignition (Department of Energy)
Fusion breakthrough is a milestone for climate, clean energy (Associated Press)
What is Nuclear Fusion?
Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun. For the first time, scientists produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it — a major breakthrough in the decades-long quest to harness that power.
Fusion has been described as the "holy grail" of energy production as it could eventually provide huge quantities of clean energy for the world, and scientists have been trying to recreate it since the 1960s.
According to BBC News, in nuclear fusion, pairs of tiny particles called atoms are heated and forced together to make one heavier one. Nuclear fusion does not rely on fossil fuels like oil or gas and produces none of the greenhouse gases that drive global warming.
Fusion is the opposite of nuclear fission, in which heavy atoms are split apart. Nuclear fission produces radioactive waste, which can be dangerous and must be stored safely. potentially for hundreds of years.
The waste produced by nuclear fusion is less radioactive and decays much more quickly.
Nuclear fusion breakthrough – what is it and how does it work? (BBC News)
Stockpile Stewardship Program
In contrast to its potential use for clean energy, the Daily Beast writes that nuclear fusion is “a meaningful scientific achievement whose entire reason for being rests inside the long-term work of sustaining an arsenal of oblivion.”
The stockpile stewardship program refers to the continued existence of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, the second-largest in the world.
“Our thermonuclear weapons have fusion ignition that takes place in our weapons, so studying fusion ignition is something we do to support the stockpile stewardship program,” Mark Herrmann, Lawrence Livermore’s program director for weapon physics and design, said.
According to the Daily Beast, ground broke for the National Ignition Facility on May 29, 1997, with construction continuing into 2009. The initial impetus for the facility dates back earlier, with its concept first theorized in 1959-1960—less than a decade after the first hydrogen bomb test.
Nuclear weapons, though bound to their origin in World War II and development throughout the Cold War, are an ever-present fact of modern geopolitics.
They are an enduring threat, and to a large degree the work of stockpile stewardship is about making sure the weapons the U.S. already has will work, if a president gives the order to launch.
The author concludes that “one of the year’s most monumental scientific achievements is indebted to decades of research into weapons of mass destruction. The great discovery of the day was scientific, but the facility exists for weapons science first, civil energy second.”
The One Thing Everyone’s Ignoring About the Fusion Energy Breakthrough (The Daily Beast)
Science Fiction Becomes Reality
Regardless of its potential uses or how the breakthrough was achieved, this fusion ignition milestone cannot be overstated.
What was once confined to the pages of science fiction has now become reality.
If you enjoy science fiction books and movies, you’ve undoubtedly read or watched stories in which fusion was used to produce abundant, clean energy.
Whether harnessing the power of the sun for space travel to distant worlds, providing deadly or life-saving weapons for Marvel or DC characters, or a government plot to destroy it before the world is able to benefit, the idea of nuclear fusion has permeated fiction and popular culture for years.
The practical application of this technology is obviously decades into the future, but the incredible breakthrough by the Department of Energy is nothing short of a game-changer for energy production.
And the possibilities are limitless.
As Maya Phillips writes for the New York Times, “Today we step into the future. And it looks a lot like a movie we’ve all seen.”
“If it sounds like science fiction, well, that’s because we’ve been amply primed for this discovery in pop culture, where alternative versions of our present and fantastical imaginings of our future have shown us impossible technologies powered by some combination of special effects and incomprehensible jargon.”
“Pop culture’s fascination with fusion goes beyond a process that sustains robotics and machinery; our culture’s collective dreams of safe, unlimited energy have even been epitomized by some of our heroes.”
When Doc Brown told Marty in 1985’s Back to the Future that he needed a nuclear reaction to produce 1.21 gigawatts of power, although we’re certainly not inventing time travel, the fanciful idea of a high-powered energy source has always captured our imaginations.
It appears nuclear fusion is no longer a fanciful dream of fiction, but a burgeoning reality that will have enormous consequences for the world.
Turning Sci-fi Into Reality (New York Times)
Fusion? We’ve Seen This Movie Before. (New York Times)