Fusion Is The Holy Grail Of Clean Energy, And It Just Made A Major Breakthrough

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have made an important breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology, which harnesses the energy that is released when two hydrogen atoms are fused together to make helium. On December 5, they achieved what is known as “ignition,” which means more energy was produced out of a fusion reaction than was needed to make the reaction happen in the first place. This is a major step forward for what could be one of most important sources of clean energy in the future.

The successful experiment occurred at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, which hosts the world’s largest laser fusion facility. Earlier this month, lasers were pointed at a tiny gold cylinder containing a spherical diamond, inside of which were hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium. These were heated at extreme temperatures until they combined to produce helium.

This process of two or more atomic nuclei being fused together to form a single, heavier nucleus releases energy, which can then be used to generate electricity. Fusion is best known for powering the sun and other stars, but in the future it could also be used to power most of our energy needs right here on earth. It is probably the only form of clean energy on the horizon right now that has the potential to truly revolutionize our energy use, providing near limitless energy abundance.

This is the first known instance of ignition—getting more energy out than went into the reaction. Despite the breakthrough, there are a number of challenges that will have to be overcome before the electricity in your home comes from a nuclear fusion power plant.

The first are technological challenges. The NIF facility still uses more energy from the grid than it gets back in terms of power from the reaction. That’s going to have to change, meaning the efficiency of the entire operation is going to have to increase by orders of magnitude. Ignition is only a first step towards commercial viability. For fusion to become a practical reality, the reaction will need to become truly self-sustaining, as one fusion reaction powers another and another.

Then there is cost. Tritium in particular is expensive and scarce, and these inputs don’t even account for the cost of building the fusion facility. Moreover, it’s not clear what approach is the best way of producing a fusion chain reaction. Lasers are just one method of handling a reaction that can reach temperatures in the millions of degrees Centigrade. Magnets are another common method, used to create a powerful magnetic field that confines a hot plasma as it circles around a vacuum chamber called a tokamak. The sheer variety of different fusion methods suggests a lot more experimentation is needed.

Even the most optimistic projections are that a fusion plant won’t be coming online until the 2030s. The Department of Energy’s people say it will be “decades” before commercial fusion is a reality. That said, the DOE is hoping to have a pilot plant up and running by the early 2030s, and the real thing could come shortly thereafter.

Climate change is already a major problem, however, as its impacts are being felt around the world. A major fusion breakthrough could be the solution, but the skeptics are right to point out that the MIT and Cal-Tech whizzes just aren’t moving fast enough. The world is waiting on them with bated breath. Can they turn figurative straw into gold? Only time will tell, but I for one believe they have what it takes to do it.