Color Me Skeptical

Nuclear fusion as a means of reliable and clean power is an amazing possibility.

It has been touted as 10 years away since before I was born, so I am skeptical of the claims that the Lawrence Livermore National Lab's National Ignition Facility has broken "Unity" with its latest inertial containment tests, with about 20% more power generated than was added.

The information is at this point preliminary, but seems to indicate that about 20% more energy was released than was fed into the system.

The system can basically be described as using lasers to generate extremely intense heat and pressure in order to ignite a fusion reaction:

US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time, according to three people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment.

Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would help prove the process could provide a reliable, abundant alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy.

The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said.

………

The fusion reaction at the US government facility produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, which was about 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules of energy in the lasers, the people with knowledge of the results said, adding that the data was still being analysed.

………

The laboratory confirmed that a successful experiment had recently taken place at its National Ignition Facility but said analysis of the results was ongoing.

“Initial diagnostic data suggests another successful experiment at the National Ignition Facility. However, the exact yield is still being determined and we can’t confirm that it is over the threshold at this time,” it said. “That analysis is in process, so publishing the information . . . before that process is complete would be inaccurate.”

At this point, as I have noted, I am dubious of their results, but Congress should get involved, specifically to ensure that any patents awarded cannot not be granted as exclusive licenses.