‘American researchers have made progress with energy-positive nuclear fusion’ – IT Pro – News

American researchers at the National Ignition Facility may have made a breakthrough in the field of positive energy nuclear fusion. A large laser installation reportedly generated more energy than was needed to start the process.

Over the past two weeks, researchers at NIT, part of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, have managed to generate more net energy from nuclear fusion than the process consumed, according to those involved, so writes the Financial Times. By means of the hydrogen plasma and the largest laser plant in the world, according to the sources, 2.5 megajoules of energy could be generated, while for 192 lasers to drive.

These dates have not yet been officially confirmed by the institution. As a result, no official announcement has yet been made by the institute or the US government; according to lab staff, the data is still being processed internally. This is taking longer than expected because the nuclear fusion experiment generated more energy than expected, which damaged some measuring instruments. The Energy Ministry has already announced that the competent minister and the deputy minister of nuclear safety will announce a “major scientific breakthrough” on Tuesday. This will take place at 4pm Dutch time via the YouTube channel below.

The nuclear fusion process is often described as a controlled imitation of the way the sun generates energy. In fact, the nuclei of atoms of a light element, in this case hydrogen, are fused together to form a heavier element. This process releases a huge amount of energy. In theory, the energy generated this way is very clean since no greenhouse gases are released. There is also relatively little radioactive waste. The opposite process is the splitting of heavy elements such as uranium or plutonium; this happens in today’s nuclear power plants.