Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Announcement: One of The Biggest Feats of the 21st Century

The US Department of Energy has announced one of the biggest breakthroughs in the 21st century, something I have been patiently waiting for ever since Spiderman 2! Nuclear fusion has finally become a possibility. Find out more in this exciting video. 

Nuclear Fusion can be defined as "a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy." 

In layman's terms, you direct a bunch of lasers at a pellet of fuel, and then you achieve fusion ignition that generates more energy than was initially used to power the lasers. In short, you get net energy gain. The lasers delivered 2.05 megajoules of energy, and when the target ignited, the fusion reaction produced 3.15 megajoules, lab officials said on Tuesday. The milestone created a net energy gain that scientists have been trying for decades to achieve.

"Today we will talk about fusion; combining two particles into one. Last week at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, scientists at the national ignition facility achieved a fusion ignition, and that is creating more energy from fusion reactions than the energy used to start the process. It's the first time it has ever been done in a laboratory anywhere in the world. Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st-century."US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said during a press conference.

She also added, "This one milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society."  

This means that if we can advance fusion energy, we can use it to produce clean electricity, transportation fuels, power heavy industries, and so much more. 

"And it's a scientific mile stone scientific energy break even to chief this, but of course, as with all of these kinds of complex scientific undertaking so it's also an engineering marvel beyond belief, and and the duality of advancing the research building the complex engineering systems besides learning from each other, this is how we do really big hard things beautiful example." said Dr Arati Prabhakar, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director. 

What a time to be alive!

This milestone raises the prospect that one day in the near future, perhaps a decade from now, the global economy will be run on carbon-free electricity generated by the very process that powers the sun. 

Video Sources:

CBS News

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory