Nuclear fusion breakthrough: Why the latest research matters? How it could be climate, clean energy game-changer

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough: Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have achieved a crucial milestone for the first time by producing more energy from a fusion reaction than was utilised to ignite it, Department of Energy officials announced at a press conference on Tuesday.

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough - why it matters: For decades, researchers have been trying to harness fusion as a source of clean energy. According to Granholm and other officials, the accomplishment will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power. Fusion proponents believe that one day it would be able to produce nearly limitless carbon-free energy, replacing fossil fuels and other conventional energy sources. Producing energy that powers homes and businesses from fusion are still decades away. But experts argued that it was still a significant step.

Nuclear Fusion Energy - How it works: Fusion works by exerting sufficient pressure on neighboring hydrogen atoms that they combine together to form helium, generating huge quantities of heat and energy. It doesn't produce radioactive waste, in contrast to other nuclear reactions.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) used 192 lasers and temperatures multiple times hotter than the centre of the sun to create an extremely brief fusion reaction. The lasers focus an enormous amount of heat on a small metal can. The result is a superheated plasma environment where fusion may occur.

Worth noting: NIF at the federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieved 'ignition', in which fuel is set ablaze and can keep burning on its own. Notably, the reaction produces more energy than it takes in.

This method is being investigated in France by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a commercial enterprise, and a 35-nation consortium known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

Teams working on those projects across two continents revealed major developments in the essential magnets required for their work last year.

And, yes: Billions of dollars and decades of work have gone into fusion research that has produced exhilarating results — for fractions of a second.

(With PTI inputs)

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