The United States Department of Energy said yesterday, Sunday, December 11, 2022, that it was preparing to announce a “major scientific advance this week” in the field of nuclear fusion.
The British daily Financial Times reported hours earlier that scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), located in California, recently obtained a “net energy gain” from an experimental fusion reactor.
It would be the first time that researchers have managed to produce more energy in a fusion reaction – like the one that powers the Sun – than they have consumed in the process, which would be a significant breakthrough. in the search for carbon-free energy.
Asked to comment on the FT article, spokespersons for the Department of Energy and the LLNL told AFP that the US Secretary of State for Energy, Jennifer Granholm, will organize tomorrow, Tuesday December 13, 2022 , an event during which she will “announce a major scientific breakthrough”.
The LLNL spokesperson added that “analysis (was) still ongoing”.
“We look forward to sharing more information on Tuesday when this process is complete,” she added.
The fusion reaction that produced a net energy gain of 120% occurred within the past two weeks, the FT reported, citing three people with knowledge of the preliminary results.
Nuclear fusion is considered by its defenders as the energy of tomorrow, in particular because it produces little waste and no greenhouse gases.
“If this breakthrough…is real, it could be a game-changer for the planet,” California Congressman Ted Lieu tweeted after the FT report was released.
Fusion differs from fission, a technique currently used in nuclear power plants, which consists of breaking the bonds of heavy atomic nuclei to recover energy.
Fusion is the reverse process: two light atomic nuclei are “married” to create a heavy one. In this case two isotopes (atomic variants) of hydrogen, giving rise to helium.
The LLNL facility consists of nearly 200 lasers the size of three football fields, which target a tiny point with high levels of energy to initiate a fusion reaction.