NIF makes breakthrough in nuclear fusion

According to reports by the BBC and other news outlets the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, has succeeded in generating a nuclear fusion reaction that generated more energy than was required to cause the reaction to take place. This net gain in energy is thought to be a critical step towards what scientists refer to as “ignition,” the point at which a nuclear fusion process generates more energy than it consumes, a milestone in paving the way to the use of the technology for power generation.

Nuclear fusion, as distinct from nuclear fission, the conventional form of nuclear energy in which heavy atoms are split, involves the fusion of hydrogen nuclei to form helium atoms, a process which generates energy in the sun but which requires extremely high pressures and temperatures. With readily available raw materials as feedstock and no radioactive waste products, nuclear fusion is a potential future power generation technology.

NIF, a facility based in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been experimenting with a nuclear fusion technique involving the bombardment by laser beams of a fuel pellet containing hydrogen atoms that are targeted for fusion. The technique entails the use of 192 laser beams from the world’s most powerful laser to compress and heat the pellet, the BBC report says.

Earlier this year a white paper published by the American Security Project said that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory would progress plans for a demonstration power plant if the laboratory could succeed in obtaining a net gain of energy from a fusion reaction.

In the south of France an internationally funded research organization called ITER is building a multibillion dollar nuclear fusion facility to test an alternative fusion technique involving the heating of plasma to 150 million degrees centigrade.

—Alan Bailey