Scientists hit a key milestone on the road to fusion energy with 192 lasers and temperatures more than three times hotter than the center of the sun.
A fusion reaction that lasted for a short time was a major feat because fusion requires high temperatures and high pressures.
The ultimate goal is to generate power by smooshing hydrogen atoms so close to each other that they combine into helium, which releases torrents of energy.
A team of more than 100 scientists published the results of four experiments in the journal Nature. Scientists say they are on the verge of an even bigger advance with the results and preliminary results from follow-up experiments. The fuel can continue to burn on its own and produce more energy than is needed to start the reaction.
Alex Zylstra, the lead author of the study, said that they are very close to that next step.
Nuclear fusion creates two types of hydrogen. A small amount of fuel is enough to produce enormous amounts of energy and it doesn't produce radioactive waste.
Researchers around the world have been working on the technology for decades. Thirty-five countries are collaborating on a project in Southern France called the International thermonuclear Experimental Reactor that uses enormous magnets. It is expected to start operating in the year 2026.
Steven Cowley, director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, said that earlier experiments in the United States and United Kingdom did not achieve self-heating.
Don't bank on fusion just yet.
The result is very exciting for us, according to the study co-author.
He said it might be decades.
It has taken several years inside a lab that is straight out of Star Trek, one of the movies used the lab as background visuals for the engine room, and many failed attempts to get to this point. The researchers made the fuel capsule 10% bigger. It is now up to the size of a rifle.
Researchers aim 192 lasers at that gold metal can. They heat it to about 100 million degrees, creating about 50% more pressure inside the capsule than what is inside the center of the sun. Zylstra said that the experiments created burning plasmas that lasted just a trillionth of a second, but that was enough to be considered a success.
The four experiments in the Nature study produced as much as 0.17 megajoules of energy, but still less than previous attempts. A megajoule is enough energy to heat a gallon of water.
According to a government press release, preliminary results from experiments done later in the year pushed energy output to 1.3 megajoules and lasted 100 trillionths of second. The 1.9 megajoules needed to break even is less than that.
The main problem with fusion is that it is hard.
More information: A. B. Zylstra et al, Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04281-wThe Associated Press. All rights belong to the person. The material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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