Nuclear fusion is the promising technology that could solve our energy needs, but it is always a decade off.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California have taken a big step forward.
Adam Houser reports at CFACT.org citing Fox Business:
“Scientists have been struggling since the 1950s to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun. But no group has been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes.
“Though developing fusion power stations at scale is still decades away, the breakthrough has significant implications as the world seeks to wean itself off of fossil fuels. Fusion reactions emit zero carbon and do not produce any long-lasting radioactive waste.”
“‘If this is confirmed, we are witnessing a moment of history,” said Dr Arthur Turrell, a plasma physicist, told the paper. “Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy than is put in since the 1950s, and the researchers at Lawrence Livermore seem to have finally and absolutely smashed this decades-old goal.”
In 2019 a team of CFACT researchers met with scientists at the ITER, or International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, in France. Take a look at the video we posted to YouTube explaining this massive project.
The Wall Street Journal reminds us to temper our expectations, writing “what the experiment proved is that scientists can recreate the physical reactions in stars. But scaling the technology and making it commercially viable by most scientists’ accounts will likely take another few decades.”
At CFACT we remain sober about the scientific and engineering challenges facing the development of nuclear fusion technology.
Nonetheless, the potential of this safe, clean, endlessly abundant energy source could change everything.
Let’s do the science and find out.