Scientists reveal ‘holy grail’ breakthrough to create limitless clean energy

Scientists have taken the first step toward the ‘Holy Grail’ of cheap, clean, near unlimited power by harnessing the power of the Sun, announced the U.S. Department of Energy.

In a morning briefing, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on Dec. 5 managed to create a nuclear fusion reaction which creates more energy than is poured into it — the initial obstacle in designing a reactor that could produce electricity far more efficiently than current nuclear fission reactors.

“Last week, at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California, scientists at the National Ignition Facility achieved ‘fusion ignition,’ creating more energy from fusion reactions than the energy used to start the process,” said Granholm. “Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.”

“This feat is akin to the Wright brothers achieving takeoff in Kitty Hawk…but we’re not yet ready for a transatlantic flight.”

“This is a historic achievement,” said Livermore director Kim Budil, speaking about the first ignition of a fusion reaction.

“The science and technology challenges on the path to fusion energy are daunting. But making the seemingly impossible possible is when we’re at our very best. Ignition is a first step, a truly monumental one that sets the stage for a transformational decade in high energy density science and fusion research. And I cannot wait to see where it takes us,” Budil said.

Researchers have been pouring billions of dollars into chasing the secrets of a controlled nuclear fusion since the 1950s when the first fusion bombs were developed.

Fusion — the nuclear reaction that fuels the Sun and stars — occurs when two smaller atoms are smashed together — fused — to form a larger atom. Typically, two hydrogen atoms are fused into a helium atom. This is the most common reaction in stars.

But the resultant atom has a smaller mass than that of the initial two atoms combined — that excess mass is converted to huge amounts of energy that, in a reactor, can be converted into electricity.

The problem that scientists have been battling is that it takes huge amounts of energy — the sort of temperatures and gravity pressure you’d find in the Sun — to create the fusion reaction.

In fact, in a nuclear fusion bomb, a fission bomb — like that dropped on Hiroshima — is used to produce the energy to trigger the fusion process.

Existing nuclear reactors create electricity by fission: splitting larger atoms — typically uranium — and harvesting the energy produced to generate power for the grid.

But the breakthrough by the Livermore scientist is only a first step in a long process — actual commercial electricity generation may still be decades away, said Budil.

Now that they have succeeded in getting more energy out of the fusion process than they were putting in, scientists and engineers now face the task of designing reactors that will be more efficient and cost-effective enough to be produced commercially for energy grids.

But when it does arrive, it brings with it the prospect of nearly limitless energy — the materials used for fusion can be found in seawater. And unlike fission reactors, the fusion process does not create radioactive waste.

Commercial fusion reactors could not only signal the death knell for fossil fuel usage, mitigating climate change, but could also produce cheap electricity for impoverished parts of the world.

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