It's being hailed as a breakthrough at NIF, The National Ignition Facility. The goal of laser fusion has taken a significant jump forward.

They have yet to generate more energy than used to power the lasers, however, they are 70% of the way there and have demonstrated that there's nothing wrong with the concept of laser fusion.

 

"A blast into a clean energy future? Scientists tout nuclear fusion breakthrough - The San Diego Union-Tribune" https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2021-09-26/nuclear-fusion-experiment?_amp=true

 

“People have been working at this for decades trying to achieve this,” said Annie Kritcher, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the lead designer for the experiment. “I think it has extremely energized the whole community.”

 

“I am surprised,” Stephen Bodner, a retired plasma physicist and longtime critic of the National Ignition Facility, told the New York Times. “They have come close enough to their goal of ignition and break-even to call it a success ... It demonstrates to the skeptic that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the laser fusion concept.”

 

 

Edited September 27, 20214 yr by martin-w

That's very interesting, thanks for posting.  I remember 30 years ago they were talking about "cold fusion" -- I wonder how related cold fusion research and laser fusion research are.

43 minutes ago, Mace said:

I remember 30 years ago they were talking about "cold fusion" -- I wonder how related cold fusion research and laser fusion research are.

Cold fusion was discredited at that time and I don't think anything has changed regarding that. What a difference ten quadrillion watts of power makes! Still, it remains to be seen whether or not they can reproduce the laser fusion results.

5 hours ago, dmwalker said:

Cold fusion was discredited at that time and I don't think anything has changed regarding that. What a difference ten quadrillion watts of power makes! Still, it remains to be seen whether or not they can reproduce the laser fusion results.

Yes, cold fusion was a bogus result, probably originating from contamination of their samples with radioactive materials. It was not reproducible in experiments at many other labs at the time. Cold fusion was an erroneous observation in a scientific experiment, but laser fusion is more like an engineering project: the physics behind it is well understood and success will ultimately be determined by wether they will sell energy or not. An independent reproduction is therefore not required (although other groups will certainly try if they ever claim success 🙂 ).

There is also plasma fusion, which is the oldest attempt to harvest energy from nuclear fusion. This works by heating up a gas to extremely high temperatures (tens of millions of degrees) and confining the gas using a magnetic field. They also made progress recently by developing stronger electromagnets, but they have been trying to create more energy than they put in for the last 50 years. My gut feeling is that laser fusion is also at least 10 years away from success, if it comes at all.

Peter

I'm keeping an eye on General Fusion. Its pretty much a piston engine.

Steam powered pistons compress the plasma and liquid metal in the walls of the reactor absorb the heat

"Our Technology - How does Magnetized Target Fusion work?"

https://generalfusion.com/technology-magnetized-target-fusion/

Demonstration plant is going to be built in Culham in the UK. 

 

 

 

Liquid Metal Wall

A major practical advantage, the liquid metal wall absorbs energy from the fusion reaction which can then be pumped to heat exchangers. The liquid metal also protects the solid outer wall from damage, and can be combined with liquid lithium to breed tritium within the power plant.

 

Compressed Gas Driver

Using practical, existing technology, steam powered pistons compress the plasma to fusion conditions. Not requiring the exotic lasers or giant magnets found in other fusion approaches, steam pistons can be practically implemented in a commercial power plant.

 

No Consumables

The compression target is comprised only of magnetized plasma (fusion fuel), which does not need to be manufactured and is effectively cost free.

Edited September 28, 20214 yr by martin-w