We’re One Step Closer to Nuclear Fusion Energy

Scientists with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced today that they have achieved a critical step in fusion research: For the first time, their hydrogen fuel has given off more energy than it took in.

Though an important milestone, the result does not mean that your Delorean is soon going to sport a Mr. Fusion reactor. NIF would need to sustain temperatures and pressures much greater than they are currently capable of before they can harness fusion energy.

more…

CrazyNeutrino said:

We’re One Step Closer to Nuclear Fusion Energy

Scientists with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced today that they have achieved a critical step in fusion research: For the first time, their hydrogen fuel has given off more energy than it took in.

Though an important milestone, the result does not mean that your Delorean is soon going to sport a Mr. Fusion reactor. NIF would need to sustain temperatures and pressures much greater than they are currently capable of before they can harness fusion energy.

more…

is this step closer to nuclear fusion like a step closer for iran to make the bomb?

don’t hold ya breath

The researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, led by physicist Omar Hurricane, described the achievement as important but said much more work is needed before fusion can become a viable energy source.

They noted that they did not produce self-heating nuclear fusion, known as ignition, that would be needed for any fusion power plant.

Researchers have faced daunting scientific and engineering challenges in trying to develop nuclear fusion – the process that powers stars including our sun – for use by humankind.

“Really, for the first time anywhere, we’ve got more energy out of this fuel than was put into the fuel. And that’s quite unique,” Mr Hurricane said.

“That’s kind of a major turning point, in a lot of our minds.

“I think a lot of people are jazzed.”
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I don’t know if I’d like to have a Perfesser called Omar Hurricane who thinks a lot of people are jazzed doing nuclear fusion experiments in my town.

Peak Warming Man said:

The researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, led by physicist Omar Hurricane, described the achievement as important but said much more work is needed before fusion can become a viable energy source.

They noted that they did not produce self-heating nuclear fusion, known as ignition, that would be needed for any fusion power plant.

Researchers have faced daunting scientific and engineering challenges in trying to develop nuclear fusion – the process that powers stars including our sun – for use by humankind.

“Really, for the first time anywhere, we’ve got more energy out of this fuel than was put into the fuel. And that’s quite unique,” Mr Hurricane said.

“That’s kind of a major turning point, in a lot of our minds.

“I think a lot of people are jazzed.”
———————————————————————————————————————————-

I don’t know if I’d like to have a Perfesser called Omar Hurricane who thinks a lot of people are jazzed doing nuclear fusion experiments in my town.

If I was a couple of hydrogen atoms I imagine I’d fuse whenever someone like Omar Hurricane told me to ‘damm well fuse”.

CrazyNeutrino said:

For the first time, their hydrogen fuel has given off more energy than it took in.

Hydrogen? ( reads link). Ah, they’re fusing the hydrogen isotopes deuterium & tritium, as usual.

From the link:

Until now, the energy given off by the fusing hydrogen hasn’t been enough to set off a chain reaction. The hydrogen fuel also always consumed more energy than it put out. But during experiments late last year, NIF researchers were finally able to get the hydrogen to give off as much as 1.7 times more energy than it had taken in, a result that appears today in Nature. In subsequent experiments last month, the team was able to produce as much as 2.6 times more energy than was put into the hydrogen fuel.

That’s not too shabby.

I thought we have been capable of creating nore energy out than energy in from fusion in a non sustained manner for the best part of a century.???

Stealth said:

I thought we have been capable of creating nore energy out than energy in from fusion in a non sustained manner for the best part of a century.???

Yes but not vapourising the city was the tricky bit.

This didn’t occur to me until recently but is probably an extremely old idea.

We could have harnessed nuclear fusion for civilian power 60 years ago. Dig a large underground chamber and part fill it with water (or line it with water pipes). Set off a fusion “device” in the middle of the chamber. User the resulting steam energy to drive turbines for power.

Easy.

mollwollfumble said:

This didn’t occur to me until recently but is probably an extremely old idea.

We could have harnessed nuclear fusion for civilian power 60 years ago. Dig a large underground chamber and part fill it with water (or line it with water pipes). Set off a fusion “device” in the middle of the chamber. User the resulting steam energy to drive turbines for power.

Easy.

Hmmm. I reckon you wouldn’t get too many cycles out of that before the chamber was damaged by the blast shocks. I suppose you could reduce the shocks by using a very big chamber, maybe fitted with various baffles to spread the impulse out over time.

Also, although D-T fusion is cleaner than fission per unit energy released, it’s not totally clean, and ambient matter in the vicinity may become radioactive due to the neutrons and gamma rays emitted, plus you have all the goodies that the fission trigger device produces. So it would not be fun trying to service the chamber…

Speaking of hot underground chambers…

xkcd #1330
published 14 February 2014


Kola Borehole

PM 2Ring said:

Speaking of hot underground chambers…

xkcd #1330
published 14 February 2014


Kola Borehole

Leave the hole open and charge people to dump their asbestos

PM 2Ring said:

mollwollfumble said:

This didn’t occur to me until recently but is probably an extremely old idea.

We could have harnessed nuclear fusion for civilian power 60 years ago. Dig a large underground chamber and part fill it with water (or line it with water pipes). Set off a fusion “device” in the middle of the chamber. User the resulting steam energy to drive turbines for power.

Easy.

Hmmm. I reckon you wouldn’t get too many cycles out of that before the chamber was damaged by the blast shocks. I suppose you could reduce the shocks by using a very big chamber, maybe fitted with various baffles to spread the impulse out over time.

Also, although D-T fusion is cleaner than fission per unit energy released, it’s not totally clean, and ambient matter in the vicinity may become radioactive due to the neutrons and gamma rays emitted, plus you have all the goodies that the fission trigger device produces. So it would not be fun trying to service the chamber…

Agreed.

I reckon we’d be better off to just put a huge fusion device in space.

Except we don’t need to because we’ve already got one.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Agreed.

I reckon we’d be better off to just put a huge fusion device in space.

Except we don’t need to because we’ve already got one.

We’re not going to get mini fusion reactors to put into our DeLoreans so we can time travel with that attitude…

> We’re not going to get mini fusion reactors to put into our DeLoreans so we can time travel with that attitude…

Not fusion, just fission.
Ford nucleon

> Servicing.

The only real difficult that I can see is making a chamber that big structurally sound, ie. stopping the roof from caving in under the weight of the rock above.