Scientists and officials with the Department of Energy on Tuesday announced a breakthrough in the creation of fusion energy at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
On Dec. 5, a team at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it, according to a news release.
Referred to as the "fusion dream," it would be a big first step, they say, toward weaning the world off fossil fuels: Lasers used to create a fusion reaction that produces clean energy.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
Officials say it’s a huge breakthrough in producing an endless supply of clean, cheap power without radioactive waste or fossil fuel emissions.
"This is a hurrah moment for humanity!" said Michl Binderbauer CEO of TAE Technologies. "It's going to create the backbone of stable, reliable power 24/7 to drive that entire ecosystem of electrified things."
"The pursuit of fusion ignition in the laboratory is one of the most significant scientific challenges ever tackled by humanity, and achieving it is a triumph of science, engineering, and most of all, people," LLNL Director Dr. Kim Budil said.
Local
Scientists say, once fully developed, fusion energy could power entire cities and the batteries inside our cars. But that could take a decade or more.
"If we had fusion, we could drop fossil fuels immediately and forever, right. It would be game over, we would have all the energy we needed, more than all the energy we needed," said Adam Frank, astrophysics professor with the University of Rochester.
LLNL’s experiment surpassed the fusion threshold by delivering 2.05 megajoules of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output, demonstrating for the first time a most fundamental science basis for inertial fusion energy (IFE), according to the Energy Department.
"Many advanced science and technology developments are still needed to achieve simple, affordable IFE to power homes and businesses, and DOE is currently restarting a broad-based, coordinated IFE program in the United States. Combined with private-sector investment, there is a lot of momentum to drive rapid progress toward fusion commercialization," the DOE said in a statement.
