U.S. scientists have achieved net energy gain in fusion experiment

• Fusion energy could one day provide a cheap source of electricity.
• The process involves heating two atoms to temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius.
• Private industry received more than $2.8 billion last year

The US Department of Energy, according to three persons familiar with the subject, will announce that scientists at a national facility have made a breakthrough in fusion, the process that drives the sun and stars and that one day could supply a cheap source of electricity.

One of the sources said that in a fusion experiment employing lasers, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have achieved a net energy gain for the first time.

Scientists in the U.S. have for the first time achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment, sources said. Fusion energy could one day provide a cheap source of electricity which could help in the fight against climate change https://t.co/GvFnOcLu9x pic.twitter.com/342Cv6gQCA

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 13, 2022

While these findings represent a significant step forward in an endeavour that has been ongoing in some form since the 1930s, one source has noted that the ratio of energy input to output at Livermore would need to be about 100 times larger before the process could be scaled up to produce electricity at a commercial level.

The experiment was initially published in the FT.

When two atoms’ nuclei are heated to temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), they fuse to form a single, much larger atom and release vast quantities of energy in the process.

But it requires a lot of energy, so the challenge has been to build it such that it can run on its own, producing more energy than it uses.

“Inertial confinement fusion, which involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks.” https://t.co/TNBhC5VAcJ pic.twitter.com/c2EueqknCp

— Tren Griffin (@trengriffin) December 11, 2022

If fusion is commercialized, which supporters say could happen in a decade or more, it would generate virtually carbon-free electricity without the radioactive nuclear waste by today’s nuclear fission.

However, operating an electric power plant based on fusion presents significant challenges, including how to comprise the heat economically and retain lasers firing consistently. Magnets, rather than lasers, are used in other fusion methods.

Jennifer Granholm, Canada’s Energy Secretary, is scheduled to hold a media briefing on a “great science breakthrough” on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).

A spokesperson for the department stated that there is no information available prior to the briefing.

Lawrence Livermore is primarily concerned with national security issues related to nuclear weapons, and the fusion experiment could lead to safer test results of the nation’s arsenal of such bombs.

However, advances in the labs may also aid efforts at companies such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Focused Energy, and General Fusion, which hope to develop fusion-powered power plants.

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and John Doerr are among the investors who have invested billions into companies that are developing fusion.

According to the Fusion Industry Association, private industry received more than $2.8 billion last year, for a total of about $5 billion in recent years.

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