Unleashing Limitless Energy: US Scientists Repeat Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

Source: The post is based on the article “Unleashing Limitless Energy: US Scientists Repeat Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough”  published in News18 on 7th August 2023.

What is the News?

Scientists in the US have successfully conducted a second nuclear fusion reaction experiment that resulted in a net energy gain. 

What is Nuclear Fusion?

Nuclear fusion is the process which gives the Sun its energy.

Scientists from more than 50 countries have been trying to recreate it on Earth since the 1960s.

They hope it could eventually provide huge quantities of clean energy for the world.

In nuclear fusion, pairs of tiny particles called atoms are heated and forced together to make one heavier one.

It is the opposite of nuclear fission, in which heavy atoms are split apart. Nuclear power stations currently use nuclear fission to generate electricity.

Why is nuclear fusion so important?

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 doesn’t need fossil fuels like oil or gas. It also doesn’t generate greenhouse gases, which trap the Sun’s heat and are responsible for climate change.

Most fusion experiments use hydrogen, which can be extracted cheaply from seawater and lithium, meaning fuel supplies could last for millions of years.

It has been described as the “holy grail” of energy production.

How does Nuclear Fusion work?

When two atoms of a light element such as hydrogen are heated and combine to form a single heavier element such as helium, the nuclear reaction produces massive amounts of energy which can be captured.

But getting two identical elements to combine is actually very hard.

Because they have the same positive charge they naturally repel each other.A lot of energy is needed to overcome this resistance.

In the Sun, this happens thanks to extremely high temperatures of around ten million degrees Celsius, and significant pressure – more than 100 billion times that of the Earth’s atmosphere.

On Earth, scientists have used various different techniques to attempt to recreate these conditions. But it has proved very difficult to maintain the high temperature and pressure needed for long enough.

What have the scientists achieved now?

In 2022, scientists in the US first achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment using lasers. That experiment briefly achieved what’s known as fusion ignition by generating 3.15 megajoules of energy output after the laser delivered 2.05 megajoules to the target.

In other words, it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it.

The scientists have successfully conducted this nuclear fusion reaction experiment for a second time that resulted in a net energy gain.