Breakthrough in fusion energy production

American scientists have just made a significant breakthrough in harvesting energy from fusion reactions, which could one day lead to a valuable, unlimited source of clean energy for humanity.

Nuclear fusion requires extreme temperatures and pressures, similar to those found in the Sun and other active stars.

Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun and other stars, is essentially the fusion of the nuclei of lighter atoms into heavier particles, releasing energy. This is in contrast to the splitting of the nuclei of atoms in nuclear fission—the principle behind atomic bombs and nuclear energy.

In theory, the energy produced during fusion does not leave behind hazardous waste or pollute the atmosphere.

Until recently, researchers faced a major challenge: the energy obtained from a fusion reaction was too small compared to the enormous amount of energy needed to trigger the reaction. However, American scientists claim to have made a significant breakthrough in laboratory experiments that overcomes this obstacle.

A research team from the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) claims to be the first to find a way to generate more energy from a fusion reaction than the amount of fuel needed to initiate it. According to the journal Nature, the researchers fixed 192 lasers to a point narrower than the width of a human hair to generate enough energy to compress a fuel capsule to 1/35 of its original size.

Lasting for less than a billionth of a second, the reaction produced approximately 17,000 joules, equivalent to the energy stored in two AA batteries. Although "modest," according to the research team, the amount of energy obtained is higher than the estimated energy needed to trigger the reaction (9,000 - 12,000 joules).

The authors say the results are ten times better than anything previously achieved. However, there are still some limitations, such as the reaction not being sustained. The research team emphasizes that they need to further improve the method and increase the amount of energy harvested from the reaction by 100 times to address the challenge of the efficiency of using this approach.

According to vietnamnet