SAN ANTONIO ― Scientists made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion earlier last December in a California laboratory. We've added it to 2022's long list of Cold War echoes that includes Russian aggression, nuclear saber-rattling, Chernobyl in the headlines, a U.S. spacecraft orbiting the moon, a "Top Gun" movie in theaters and the Air Force unveiling a new stealth bomber.
In a news release that reads like a superhero origin story or the start of a sci-fi movie, the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that its team at the National Ignition Facility achieved "fusion ignition."
Simply put, for the first time in history, scientists and engineers created more energy than they used to start the process in a milestone dubbed "scientific energy breakeven."
The development, if replicated, is a small ― but also huge ― step toward endless clean energy, but the excitement is tempered with the reality that we're still decades away from wider use of the technology. The research also carries national defense and security implications, but those are murky.
Still, for those with hopes for endless clean energy changing the world or who hold such breakthroughs in awe, as if gazing at the universe, this was an inspiring moment.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said the work will "help us solve humanity's most complex and pressing problems, like providing clean power to combat climate change and maintaining a nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing."
Fusion is the process in which "two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy," and for 60 years, scientists at the lab have studied the idea that lasers could induce the phenomenon in a controlled setting.
Over time, the laser systems grew larger and more powerful. The National Ignition Facility at Livermore houses "the world's largest and most energetic laser." It's as big as a sports stadium and creates "temperatures and pressures like those in the cores of stars and giant planets, and inside exploding nuclear weapons."
On Dec. 5, scientists aimed the system's 192 lasers at a "tiny fuel pellet" of hydrogen atoms. The lasers delivered 2.05 megajoules of energy to the atoms, which fused together and generated 3.15 megajoules of energy.
That converts to less than 1 kilowatt hour, which doesn't sound like much considering the average American home uses 29 kWhs per day, but the accomplishment marks another step in the long march to what many consider the holy grail of energy independence.
The government invests vast amounts of money into this research. The National Ignition Facility opened in 2009 at a cost of $3.5 billion.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer used the recent "astonishing scientific advance" to announce that he helped secure more than $624 million in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act for the nation's inertial confinement fusion program, which also includes research at the University of Rochester Lab for Laser Energetics. And the act is only one funding source for one aspect of the nation's fusion research.
Other politicians praised the breakthrough. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., called it a "historic, innovative achievement"; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said it's "an exciting step in fusion"; Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., called it a "monumental scientific breakthrough"; and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said, "This is a very big deal."
Congratulations to the legions of scientists, engineers and others who've dedicated their lives to researching fusion. Thanks to their hard work, talent and ingenuity, perhaps our children ― or their children ― won't have to worry about the environmental and energy problems challenging the world today.
The dream of endless, clean, cheap and safe energy could help stabilize and unite countries across the globe. It would solve problems that would allow humanity to better address other challenges threatening it.
Hopefully, by then, these recent hints of a new Cold War will only be a memory. It almost sounds too good to be true.
This article was published in the San-Antonio Express-News and contributed by Tribune Content Agency.
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