2023-08-07 22:40:31
American scientists have succeeded in repeating a major experiment in nuclear fusion, producing more energy than was used to cause the reaction. The energy production was even higher than in the previous test.
This experiment was first performed successfully in December 2022. Since then, “we have continued to perform experiments to study this exciting new scientific regime,” a spokesperson for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) said on Monday. located in California.
On July 30, a new test ‘produced a greater yield than the December 2022 experiment’, he added. He said that analyzes were still in progress and that the exact results would only be communicated once they were completed. This new breakthrough was first reported by the Financial Times.
Ultra-powerful lasers
For decades, researchers around the world have sought to develop nuclear fusion, which differs from fission, a technique currently used in nuclear power plants. If fission consists of splitting the nucleus of a heavy atom, thus releasing energy, nuclear fusion, on the contrary, is the fusion of two light nuclei.
It is this process of fusion that is at work in stars, including the Sun. According to its defenders, nuclear fusion could allow humanity to break its dependence on fossil fuels, responsible for global warming. Another advantage: it does not involve any risk of nuclear accident. But nuclear fusion will not be viable on an industrial scale for decades to come.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF), which depends on the Californian laboratory, uses ultra-powerful lasers for its experiments. By December, scientists had produced about 3.15 megajoules of energy, originally using 2.05 megajoules via lasers.
However, 300 megajoules of energy drawn from the electricity network had been required to activate the lasers, making the operation overall still loss-making. Despite everything, such a result had finally provided proof of a physical principle imagined decades ago.
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