Even so, the UK project only showed an energy gain of less than one megajoule. For instance, earlier this year, UK scientists generated a record-setting 59 megajoules of energy – about 20 times as the US-based project. Past fusion experiments including one in the United Kingdom have generated more energy but have not had nearly as big of an energy gain. “Prior breakthroughs have been important but it’s not the same thing as generating energy that could one day be used on a larger scale.” “This is very important because from an energy perspective, it can’t be an energy source if you’re not getting out more energy than you’re putting in,” Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct and a former chief energy technologist at Lawrence Livermore, told CNN on Monday. It will take years – and possibly decades – before fusion can be able to produce unlimited amounts of clean energy, and scientists are on a race against the clock to fight climate change. Scientists will also need harvest the energy produced by fusion and transfer it to the power grid as electricity. What are the next steps? Scientists and experts now need to figure out how to produce much more energy from nuclear fusion on a much larger scale.Īt the same time, they need to figure out how to eventually reduce the cost of nuclear fusion so that it can be used commercially. “This is very important because from an energy perspective, it can’t be an energy source if you’re not getting out more energy than you’re putting in,” Friedmann told CNN. Otherwise, it doesn’t make much sense for it to be developed. While there’s many more steps until this can be commercially viable, it’s essential for scientists to show that they can create more energy than they started with. Why was today's announcement significant? This is the first time scientists have ever successfully produced this, instead of breaking even as past experiments have done. “Hydrogen is found in water so the stuff that generates this energy is wildly unlimited and it is clean.” “Unlike coal, you only need a small amount of hydrogen, and it is the most abundant thing found in the universe,” Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct and a former chief energy technologist at Lawrence Livermore, told CNN. Tritium is rarer and more challenging to obtain, although it can be synthetically made. The deuterium from a glass of water, with a little tritium added, could power a house for a year. Fusion projects mainly use the elements deuterium and tritium – both of which are isotopes of hydrogen. Scientists around the world have been studying nuclear fusion for decades, hoping to recreate it with a new source that provides limitless, carbon-free energy – without the nuclear waste created by current nuclear reactors. Nuclear fusion happens when two or more atoms are fused into one larger one, a process that generates a massive amount of energy as heat. What is nuclear fusion and why does it matter? Nuclear fusion is a man-made process that replicates the same energy that powers the sun. Here are key things to know about today's announcement - and possible next steps: Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility have made history by successfully producing a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a breakthrough hailed by US officials as a “landmark achievement” and a “milestone for the future of clean energy.” (Jason Laurea/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) NIF Target Area operators inspect a final optics assembly during routine maintenance at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility.
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