The U.S. Energy Department will announce Tuesday that government scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have for the first time produced a net energy gain in a fusion reaction, a major step toward limitless, inexpensive clean energy, the Financial Times and The Washington Post reported Sunday. Scientists have been trying since the 1950s to recreate the kind of fusion reaction that powers the sun, but none have been able to produce more energy than the process consumes.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is scheduled to unveil a "a major scientific breakthrough" at the Lawrence Livermore lab on Tuesday, though the Energy Department is tight-lipped about the nature of the announcement.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"The breakthrough was already being widely discussed by scientists," the Financial Times said, citing two people familiar with the findings who also said the greater-than-expected energy output had damaged some of the diagnostic equipment.
The goal of fusion research is to harvest energy from colliding two atoms together at incredibly high speeds. The type of fusion studied at the Lawrence Livermore lab is called inertial confinement fusion, which involves hitting a tiny ball of hydrogen plasma with the world's biggest laser.
Even if this experiment's success is confirmed, we're still years or decades from fusion power flowing through the energy grid, but "the technology's potential is hard to ignore," the Financial Times reports. "Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste, and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years." It's the "holy grail" of clean energy, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said earlier this year at the launch of a new White House fusion power strategy. "Fusion has the potential to lift more citizens of the world out of poverty than anything since the invention of fire."
-
Four royal holiday hotspotsThe Week Recommends Follow in the footsteps of royalty and experience the charm of some of their most popular getaways
-
The rise of the lost luggage auctionIn the Spotlight Lost luggage hauls are attracting millions of views online
-
Stunning beaches in ScotlandThe Week Recommends Scenic spots that wouldn't look out of place in the Caribbean
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Why does the US want to put nuclear reactors on the moon?Today's Big Question The plans come as NASA is facing significant budget cuts
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Sodium batteries could make electric flight viableUnder the Radar Low-cost fuel cell has higher energy density and produces chemical by-product that could absorb CO2 from the atmosphere
