![]() Researchers have for decades attempted to recreate nuclear fusion – replicating the fusion that powers the sun. Why it matters: The result of the experiment is a massive step in a decades-long quest to unleash an infinite source of clean energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will make an announcement Tuesday on a “major scientific breakthrough,” the department announced over the weekend. (National Nuclear Security Administration/Handout/Reuters/File)įor the first time ever, US scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a source familiar with the project confirmed to CNN. The big challenge of harnessing fusion energy is sustaining it long enough so that it can power electric grids and heating systems around the globe.Īn aerial photo shows the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where scientists have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a source tells CNN. The plasma needs to reach at least 150 million degrees Celsius, 10 times hotter than the core of the sun. The machine that generates the reaction has to undergo serious heat. ![]() This heat can then be used to warm water, create steam and power turbines to generate power. The neutrons, which are able to escape the plasma, then hit a “blanket” lining the walls of the tokamak, and their kinetic energy transfers as heat. The missing mass then converts to an enormous amount of energy. Here's how it works: The heat sustained by the process of fusing the atoms together holds the key to helping produce energy.Īs CNN reported earlier this year, the process of fusion creates helium and neutrons – which are lighter in mass than the parts from which they were originally made. In a huge donut-shaped machine called a tokamak outfitted with giant magnets, scientists working near Oxford were able to generate a record-breaking amount of sustained energy. In February, UK scientists announced they had more than doubled the previous record for generating and sustaining nuclear fusion. Scientists have been inching toward the breakthrough. 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 - something scientists hope to be able to harness to supply power grids with clean energy across the world. The National Ignition Facility's target chamber at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is where the magic happens - temperatures of 100 million degrees and pressures extreme enough to compress the target to densities up to 100 times the density of lead are created there.
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