Engineering news
Yesterday (13 December), the US Department of Energy madethe long-anticipated announcementthat fusion ignition had been achieved at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. Also known as scientific energy breakeven, the controlled fusion experiment on 5 December produced more energy from fusion than there was in the laser beams used to drive it.
In the experiment at Livermore’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), 192 lasers delivered 2.05MJ of ultraviolet energy to the target, a tiny capsule containing hydrogen. The capsule imploded under extreme pressure and temperatures, forcing the hydrogen atoms together to create heavier atoms and releasing 3.15MJ in the form of energetic neutrons.
The breakeven was celebrated as a major step towards commercial fusion energy, which many believe could be an extremely promising source of low-carbon energy. Unlike fission energy, which is already widely used, the fuel is abundant and the process produces a limited amount of radioactive waste.
Following the news,Longview Fusion Energy Systemsannounced its ambitions to build the world’s first laser fusion power plant. Led by former NIF director Dr Ed Moses and former LLNL deputy principal associate director Valerie Roberts, Longview has been developing a power plant design based on physics proven in the NIF for the last 18 months.
“Longview’s power plants will combine the NIF’s laser fusion breakthrough with modern, efficient lasers and a patented design to replicate these conditions several hundred times a minute – similar to the repetitive pulses in a car engine but delivering over one million horsepower,” the company announcement claimed.
“These power plants will provide carbon-free, safe, economical, and sustainable energy at a scale that can power a city’s electricity and drive industrial production of the materials needed for today’s world – from steel to fertiliser to hydrogen fuel.
“With plant groundbreaking planned in five years, this revolutionary energy source will play a significant role in meeting the global growing need for clean energy.”
摩西博士说:“朗维尤一直安静地工作in anticipation of this day – which is historic by all measures. We knew that when breakeven was achieved, it would be too late to begin to plan for full-scale commercialisation. Today is the ‘day after’, and we are here to ensure the world will have a carbon-free option in time to make a difference.”
The company, which said it has a “powerhouse team of fusion scientists, engineers, and business leaders”, did not say exactly how it would achieve such an advancement on the NIF work. Replicating and repeating the conditions is certainly one of the biggest challenges. Another major issue is that the amount of energy needed to power the lasers (400MJ) is still far higher than the output, which currently only provides enough energy to boil a few kettles.
Barriers that need to be overcome include the cooling required by the giant lasers,according to a report inThe Atlantic, as well as many other scientific, technical, and design problems.
Physicists at Imperial College London are helping analyse data from the successful NIF experiment. Professor Jeremy Chittenden, co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies, said: “Everyone working on fusion has been trying to demonstrate for over 70 years that it’s possible to generate more energy from fusion than you put in. This is a true breakthrough moment, which is tremendously exciting. It proves that the long sought-after goal, the ‘holy grail’ of fusion, can indeed be achieved. This brings us closer to generating fusion power on a much larger scale.
“To turn fusion into a power source we’ll need to boost the energy gain still further. We’ll also need to find a way to reproduce the same effect much more frequently and much more cheaply before we can realistically turn this into a power plant.
“It’s hard to say how quickly we might be able to get to that point. If everything aligns we could see fusion power in use in 10 years, but it could take far longer. The key thing is that with today’s results we know that fusion power is within reach.”
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