Image: Chip Somodevilla / Staff via Getty Images
ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.
Advertisement
On that day, NIF researchers sparked a fusion reaction that produced more energy than it consumed from the device’s suite of lasers, creating a self-sustaining process that will be essential to any working fusion reactor in the future. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm called the achievement of fusion ignition a “tremendous scientific breakthrough” in the Tuesday press conference.“This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero-carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society,” Granholm said at the briefing. “If we can advance fusion energy, we could use it to produce clean electricity, transportation fuels, power heavy industry, and so much more. It would be like adding a power drill to our toolbox in building this clean energy economy.” Nuclear fusion occurs when atoms merge together, a process that unleashes an enormous amount of energy. These reactions are the reason that stars shine, and scientists on Earth hope that they could one day form the basis of a clean power system that could ease our civilization's transition away from fossil fuels.
Advertisement