Why is the nuclear fusion energy breakthrough announced today so important?
The Department of Energy will announce a major breakthrough after years of research into nuclear fusion, the “Holy Grail” of energy production.
Researchers have been investigating nuclear fusion as a source of nearly limitless clean energy since at least the 1930s. Billions of dollars have been invested in the search for the “Holy Grail” of the zero-carbon energy source.
The saying goes that the cheap source of electricity is only a decade away but several have passed. However, the Financial Times reported that researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have made a major breakthrough.
When Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm speaks on Tuesday she is expected to announce that for the first time researchers have produced a net energy gain from an experimental fusion reactor.
Nuclear fusion would provide clean reliable energy essentially forever
Nuclear fusion, the same type that powers the Sun, would provide essentially limitless energy, and thus electricity, without the negatives. Burning fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases, nuclear fission radioactive waste and renewables aren’t always reliable for continuous energy production.
Unlike nuclear fission where an atom is split to produce enormous amounts of energy, nuclear fusion gets two atoms to fuse together to create a heavier atom releasing vast amounts of energy. However, to get that to happen, giant amounts of energy are required to raise the temperature of the atoms’ nuclei to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million degrees Celsius).
Why is the nuclear fusion energy breakthrough announcement so important?
In the case of the experimental fusion reactor at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, multiple lasers are used. Almost 200 in fact, that measure the size of three football fields, that bombard a tiny pellet of heavy hydrogen to initiate the fusion reaction.
In order for the process to be commercially viable, the energy that is produced by the fusion reaction needs to be around 100 times bigger than what is put in. Citing people with knowledge of the matter, researchers at the facility managed to produce a net energy gain of 120 percent, although the results were preliminary.
However, don’t expect to see fusion reactors popping up like mushrooms just yet. It will most likely take at least a decade if not two before the technology can be rolled out for commercial use.