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The quest to make fusion energy a reality has recently taken a big step forward. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced the results of an experiment with unprecedented fusion efficiency. A single laser shot triggered reactions that released 1.3 megajoules of fusion production energy with nuclear burn propagation signatures.
Reaching this milestone indicates how close the fusion is to producing electricity. The latest results demonstrate the rapid pace of progress, especially since lasers are evolving at breakneck speed.
Indeed, the laser is one of the most significant technological inventions since the end of the Second World War. Widely used in an incredibly diverse range of applications including machining, precision surgery, and consumer electronics, lasers are an integral part of everyday life. Not many people know, however, that lasers also herald an exciting and entirely new chapter in physics: enabling controlled nuclear fusion with positive energy gain.
After six decades of innovation, lasers are now helping us in the urgent process of developing clean, dense and efficient fuels, which, in turn, are needed to help solve the global energy crisis through carbon-free energy production. in large scale. The peak power attainable in a laser pulse has increased each decade by a factor of 1000.
Physicists recently conducted a fusion experiment that produced 1,500 terawatts of power. For a short time, this generated four to five times more energy than what the whole world is consuming at any given time. In other words, we are already capable of producing large amounts of energy. Now we also have to generate large amounts of energy in order to compensate for the energy expended to drive the ignition lasers.
Beyond lasers, there are also considerable advances on the target side. The recent use of nanostructured targets allows more efficient absorption of laser energies and ignition of fuel. This has only been possible for a few years, but here too, technological innovation is on a steep slope with enormous progress year after year.
In the face of such progress, one may wonder what is still preventing us from making commercial merger a reality.
Two important challenges remain: First, we need to bring the pieces together and create an integrated process that satisfies all the physical and techno-economic requirements. Second, we need sustainable levels of investment from private and public sources to achieve this. In general, the field of fusion is woefully underfunded. This is shocking given the potential of fusion, especially compared to other energy technologies.
Clean energy investments totaled over $ 500 billion in 2020. Fusion research and development funds are only a fraction of that. There are already countless brilliant scientists working in the industry, as well as students keen to get into the field. And, of course, we have excellent government research labs. Collectively, researchers and students believe in the power and potential of controlled nuclear fusion. We need to secure financial support for their work to make this vision a reality.
What we need now is an expansion of public and private investment that takes into account the opportunity that presents itself. Such investments may have a longer time horizon, but their potential impact is unparalleled. I think the net energy gain is within reach over the next decade; marketing, based on the first prototypes, will follow very quickly.
But these deadlines are highly dependent on funding and the availability of resources. Considerable investments are allocated to alternative energy sources – wind, solar, etc. – but fusion must have its place in the global energy equation. This is especially true as the critical moment of breakthrough approaches.
If laser nuclear fusion is perfected and commercialized, it has the potential to become the energy source of choice, replacing the many existing and less ideal energy sources. This is because fusion, if done correctly, provides equal parts clean, safe and affordable energy. I am convinced that fusion power plants will eventually replace most of the conventional power plants and related large-scale energy infrastructure that is still so dominant today. There will be no need for coal or gas.
Continuous optimization of the smelting process, which translates into higher yields and lower costs, promises power production well below the current price. Ultimately, this corresponds to an unlimited source of energy. If you have unlimited energy, you also have unlimited possibilities. What can you do with it? I plan to reverse climate change by removing carbon dioxide that we have released into the atmosphere over the past 150 years.
With a future enhanced by fusion technology, you would also be able to use energy to desalinate water, creating unlimited water resources that would have a huge impact in arid and desert regions. Overall, merger makes for better societies, keeping them sustainable and clean rather than dependent on destructive and dirty energy sources and associated infrastructure.
Thanks to years of dedicated research at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Ignition Facility, I had the privilege of assisting and directing the first inertial confinement fusion experiments. I have seen the seed of something remarkable planted and taking root. I have never been so excited as now to see the fruits of laser technology harvested for the empowerment and advancement of mankind.
My fellow scientists and students are committed to moving fusion from the realm of tangibility to that of reality, but that will require a level of trust and help. A small investment today will have a big impact on providing a much needed and more welcome energy alternative on the world stage.
I bet on the side of optimism and science, and I hope others will have the courage to do so too.
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