Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Confirmed: California Team Achieved Ignition

newsweek.com ^ | 8/12/22 AT 9:20 AM EDT | JESS THOMSON ON

[BenLurkin]

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL's) National Ignition Facility (NIF) recorded the first case of ignition on August 8, 2021, the results of which have now been published in three peer-reviewed papers.

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the Sun and other stars: heavy hydrogen atoms collide with enough force that they fuse together to form a helium atom, releasing large amounts of energy as a by-product. Once the hydrogen plasma "ignites", the fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining, with the fusions themselves producing enough power to maintain the temperature without external heating.

Ignition during a fusion reaction essentially means that the reaction itself produced enough energy to be self-sustaining, which would be necessary in the use of fusion to generate electricity.

In this latest milestone at the LLNL, researchers recorded an energy yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ) during only a few nanoseconds.

[dfwgator]

I have this nagging fear that one of these days guys are going to blow us to mars.

[doorgunner69]

I thought I read that ignition had been done earlier, but sustainment of the fusion reaction has not. Cannot keep the flame going, so to speak. Hence the multiple containment designs being developed.

[combat_boots]

Coal

https://www.foxnews.com/world/judge-reinstates-obama-era-ban-coal-sales-federal-land

[Lazamataz]

It will be ready for commercial development in 20 years!

[MHGinTN]

And billions of research dollars

[fuzzylogic]

Hahahaha....what did the clown think would happen?

[Samurai_Jack]

INCOMING!!

[Deaf Smith]

>>That’s…wild.

Per the excerpt, the ignition was self sustained. ??

[BereanBrain]

This has been “announced” since the 60’s ....when you look into it, it was always achieved for some number of femto-seconds (one millionth of one billionth of a second).

Let me translate the article for you.....WE WANT MORE BILLIONS AN BILLIONS for more research.

[Hostage]

That was 10 years ago, so it was 20 years.

[catnipman]

somehow i don’t think a few nanoseconds is long enough to exceed the amount of energy used to start the reaction ...

[Steely Tom]

Thanks for the ping!

[rarestia]

They produced and ignition that could be self-sustaining. I suspect they had a mechanism to remove the fuel.

[Chad_the_Impaler]

50 quadrillion watts for 90 trillionths of a second.

[Jonty30]

It’s a flash in a pan.

[Chad_the_Impaler]

Correction: Merely 15 quadrillion watts in 90 trillionths of a second.

[oldvirginian]

“But it occurred in a nanosecond. That’s... wow.”

Nanosecond???
How many shakes of a lamb’s tail is that?

[SaveFerris]

👍👍👍😜

[VTenigma]

Good, we should have an industrial scale sustained reaction in say 30 years. /s

[rarestia]

At least 3