Ignition is a key process that amplifies the energy output of nuclear fusion and could provide clean energy and could answer some big physical questions.
A new experiment appears to have triggered an ignition for the first time in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, recreating the extreme temperatures and pressures in the heart of the sun.
Controlled fusion in the laboratory is one of the major scientific challenges of this era and it is a significant step forward.Professor Jeremy Chittenden
This has generated more energy than any previous inertial confinement fusion experiment and proves that ignition is possible, paving the way for reactions that produce more energy than needed to start.
Physicists from Imperial College London are already helping to analyze the data from the successful experiment, which was carried out on August 8, 2021. Imperial has also spawned more than 30 PhD students who have worked at the NIF. The college has close ties with the institution and others around the world through the Center for Inertial Fusion Studies (CIFS).
Significant step forward
Co-Director of the Center for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial, Professor Jeremy Chittenden, said: “Detecting ignition has been a major scientific challenge since the idea was first published almost 50 years ago. This was the main reason the NIF was built and has been its main goal for over a decade.
“After ten years of steady progress in detecting ignition, the results of last year’s experiments were more spectacular as small improvements in fusion energy performance are greatly amplified by the ignition process. The pace of improvement in energy output has been rapid, suggesting that we may soon reach more energy milestones such as:
“This is critical to unlocking the promise of fusion energy and enabling physicists to study the conditions in some of the most extreme states in the universe, including those just minutes after the Big Bang. Controlled fusion in the laboratory is one of the major scientific challenges of this era and this is a significant step forward. “
Imperial Co-Director for the Center for Inertial Fusion Studies, Professor Steven Rose said, “The NIF team has done an exceptional job. This is the most significant advance in inertial fusion since it began in 1972.
“What we’ve achieved has completely changed the fusion landscape and we can now look forward to using ignited plasmas for both scientific discovery and energy generation.”
Reach ignition
The nuclear reaction that drives current power plants is nuclear fission – the splitting of atoms to release energy. The fusion instead forces hydrogen atoms together, creating a large amount of energy and, most importantly, limited radioactive waste.
For this reason, a way has been sought for decades to generate efficient fusion reactions in order to generate clean energy with few resources. Fusion reactions have proven difficult to control, however, and to date no fusion experiment has produced more energy than was expended to start the reaction.
Although the latest experiment still required more energy than it came out, the first suspicion is that it has reached the critical “ignition” stage that made it possible to produce significantly more energy than ever before and paved the way for the “break” -Even “paved. where the incoming energy coincides with the outgoing energy.
Researchers around the world are currently trying to generate fusion energy in two ways. The NIF focuses on inertial confinement fusion, which uses a laser system to heat fuel pellets to create a plasma – a cloud of charged ions.
The fuel pellets contain “heavy” versions of hydrogen – deuterium and tritium – which are easier to melt and produce more energy. However, the fuel pellets must be heated and pressurized to achieve the conditions in the center of the sun, a natural fusion reactor.
When these conditions are met, fusion reactions release several particles, including “alpha” particles, which interact with the surrounding plasma and further heat it. The heated plasma then releases more alpha particles, etc., in a self-sustaining reaction – a process known as ignition.
However, this process has never been fully realized – until now. The results of the experiment from August 8th show an energy release of over one megajoule, which is one of the agreed thresholds for the start of ignition and is six times the highest energy achieved so far.
Dr. Arthur Turrell of Imperial’s Department of Physics and author of the newly published book The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet said, “This phenomenal breakthrough brings us temptingly close to a demonstration of ‘net energy’ gain ‘from fusion reactions – right then when the planet needs it.
“The National Ignition Facility team and its partners around the world deserve praise for overcoming some of the most terrifying scientific and engineering challenges mankind has ever faced. The extraordinary energy release will fuel fusion efforts around the world, “adding momentum to a trend that was already well underway.”
Uncharted territory
Professor Chittenden said, “Although the NIF is primarily a physics experiment and does not have the primary goal of creating fusion energy, this incredible result means that this dream is getting closer to a reality. We have now proven that it is possible to achieve ignition, and have inspired other labs and startups around the world working on the creation of fusion energy to try and achieve the same conditions with a simpler, more robust, and above to realize all the more cost-effective method. “We have entered a regime we have never been in before – this is new territory in our understanding of plasma.Dr. Brian Appelbe
The Imperial team is now analyzing the results of the experiment and using diagnostic methods it developed to understand what happens under such extreme conditions. Dr. Brian Appelbe, Research Associate at Imperial’s Center for Inertial Fusion Studies, said, “The NIF lasers have already created the most extreme conditions on earth, but the new experiment appears to have doubled the temperature previously reached. We have entered a regime that we have never been in before – this is new territory in our understanding of plasma. “
Dr. Aidan Crilly, Research Associate at Imperial’s Center for Inertial Fusion Studies, added, “Reproducing conditions at the center of the Sun will allow us to study states of matter that we have never been able to create in the laboratory, including those in stars and Supernovae are found.
“We could also gain insights into quantum states of matter and even states that are ever closer to the beginning of the Big Bang – the hotter we get, the closer we come to the very first state of the universe.”
Read more: https://www.llnl.gov/news/national-ignition-facility-experiment-puts-researchers-threshold-fusion-ignition
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