This browser does not support the Video element.
Energy Secretary celebrates fusion ignition and its limitless clean energy potential
U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm traveled to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to celebrate the achievement of fusion ignition. For the first time, scientists demonstrated a nuclear reaction that generated more energy than it used.
LIVERMORE, Calif. - The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is being celebrated for fusion ignition, a modern scientific breakthrough that has the potential for limitless clean energy.
Scientists at the lab have conducted one of the most impressive scientific feats of the current century in December 2022. The experiment essentially harnessed "the power of the sun and the stars right here on Earth," said U.S. Sec. of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
"Fusion offers the promise of affordable, abundant, reliant, clean energy. It is the holy grail," she added.
Granholm traveled to the Laboratory to celebrate the achievement on Monday. For the first time, scientists demonstrated a nuclear reaction that generated more energy than it used, a process known as ignition.
"Today is not the end of the ignition journey," said Dr. Kimberly Budil, director of LLNL. "It marks the beginning of what will be an incredible era of innovation."
The scientific breakthrough achieved in December was celebrated during a special ceremony. Granholm said it’s the first step toward limitless clean energy and increasing national security.
"Ignition gives us a new tool for instilling confidence in our nuclear capabilities, and obviously one that avoids undergrounds testing," Granholm said. "A tool that subverts the threat of a new arms race."
The fusion ignition is the result of more than 60 years of work and research. The course was set by John Nuckolls, the former director of LLNL.
"I said, ‘We have two problems, how am I going to get a million Joule laser,' because that’s what I calculated we would need," Nuckolls said during Monday’s celebration. "The next problem was, ‘I don’t think I’m going to live long enough.’ I lucked out, and here I am, this wonderful program, it’s beyond belief."
To reach ignition, scientists fired 192 lasers at a metal cylinder the size of a pencil eraser. Inside the cylinder was a peppercorn-sized capsule of two heavier forms of hydrogen. It’s a feat that required serious engineering and technology.
"That little target capsule, the size of a peppercorn, has to be almost perfect," explained Dr. Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the Dept. of Energy. "The container that surrounds the capsule has to be made from the right materials, and have the right size and shape. The power profile of each of those 192 laser beams has to be nearly perfect."
Scientists say we’re decades away from seeing fusion power production on a commercial scale. Still, the achievement proves it can be done.
The federal government has pledged tens of millions of dollars to public and private partners to continue pushing the fusion experiments forward.
"The whole point of commercial fusion, [is] you want to have pilot plants that are much more bite-size and that you can take to scale across the country," Granholm said.
Officials at LLNL say they’re refurbishing lasers and doing other maintenance, so they can continue to work to recreate the event and get even more energy from fusion ignition.