{"id":262817,"date":"2022-12-25T09:32:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T09:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=262817"},"modified":"2022-12-27T07:36:07","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T07:36:07","slug":"nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-the-future-of-clean-limitless-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=262817","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough: The Future Of Clean, Limitless Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Forbes \u2013 Dec 14, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h3><strong>Key takeaways<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>On December 5, U.S. scientists at the National Ignition Facility in California generated more energy from a nuclear fusion reaction than they put in<\/li>\n<li>The experimental result is a massive nuclear energy breakthrough in a century-long quest to unlock the power of the sun on earth<\/li>\n<li>With more research and financial investment, researchers believe we\u2019re within four decades of producing 100% clean, limitless energy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cMonday, December 5, 2022 was an important day in science.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This understatement was delivered by Jill Hruby, undersecretary for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), at a December 13 press conference.<\/p>\n<p>The subject: A nuclear energy breakthrough at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory\u2019s (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California.<\/p>\n<p>White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. Arata Prabhakar heralded the achievement as a \u201cscientific milestone\u201d and an \u201cengineering marvel beyond belief.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis duality of advancing the research, building the complex engineering systems, both sides learning from each other, this is how we do really big, hard things, and this is just a beautiful example,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The net energy gain from the fusion reaction is the first in human history. While more research (a <em>lot <\/em>more research) is needed to make the technology replicable, scalable and more efficient, it\u2019s an essential step on the path to clean energy.<\/p>\n<p>And for investors, that represents decades of opportunities ripe for the plucking.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>What is nuclear fusion?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Nuclear fusion involves combining atoms into a single, larger atom. The process generates enormous amounts of energy, and is the core reaction that drives our sun.<\/p>\n<p>Nuclear fusion differs from nuclear fission, the process used in nuclear power plants. Fission splits atoms, rather than combines them, generating dangerous radioactive waste in the process.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, nuclear fusion is far more efficient, generates almost no waste, and runs off hydrogen atoms readily available in seawater, rather than radioactive materials buried in the ground. That makes it the ideal candidate for powering everything from houses to manufacturing plants\u2026if it could be scaled.<\/p>\n<p>Since fusion was discovered a century ago, scientists have raced to unlock and replicate the mechanics in a lab. But running a fusion reaction that requires less energy in than it puts out, a process called ignition, has eluded scientists\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Until now.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The nuclear energy breakthrough in a nutshell<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>December\u2019s nuclear energy breakthrough occurred at the National Ignition Facility, which uses a process called \u201cthermonuclear inertial fusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Essentially, the $3.5 billion laser complex shoots 192 lasers at a tiny capsule. The capsule contains two hydrogen isotopes that, when bombarded with energy, vaporize almost immediately. The fusion process releases enormous amounts of energy.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, the energy input from the lasers far exceeded the energy output from the fusion reaction. But on December 5, researchers tried something new.<\/p>\n<p>The shell around the capsule they used was thicker than in past experiments, meaning that small flaws effect the experiment less. This simple \u2013 and incredibly replicable \u2013 change allowed something incredible to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Marvin Adams, NNSA Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, described the process at Tuesday\u2019s press conference. He noted that the process began with a spherical cylinder containing a small capsule, \u201cabout half the diameter of a BB.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c192 laser beams entered from the two ends of the cylinder,\u201d he said, \u201cand struck the inner wall\u2026. X-rays from the wall impinged on the spherical capsule. Fusion fuel in the capsule got squeezed, fusion reactions started. This had all happened before, 100 times before. But last week for the first time, they designed this experiment so that the fusion fuel stayed hot enough, dense enough and round enough for long enough that it ignited. And it produced more energies than the lasers had deposited. About 2 megajoules in, about 3 megajoules out. A gain of 1.5.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The importance of this breakthrough<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A gain of 1.5 sounds small, and in energy terms, it is. But it\u2019s not the size of the reaction that matters \u2013 it\u2019s that it happened <em>at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>December 5\u2019s nuclear fusion breakthrough was the culmination of a century of research, funding dollars and failures. Though there are many steps between today and commercial viability, without this step, fusion as an energy source was little more than a science fiction gimmick. Today, it\u2019s a reality.<\/p>\n<p>And the long-term potential of a fusion-heavy future is simply staggering. Unlike coal and fossil fuels, fusion reactions generate no CO2 emissions or other byproducts. And since it runs on hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, it\u2019s virtually limitless in its production potential.<\/p>\n<p>With that much energy, we won\u2019t just reduce our emissions footprint \u2013 we could reverse it.<\/p>\n<p>Unlimited power would make it possible to advance all kinds of technologies faster, cheaper and cleaner, from climate change solutions to better laptops.<\/p>\n<p>Fusion energy could relieve energy blackouts, power water treatment plants, and help us discover better ways to recycle and dispose of trash.<\/p>\n<p>New technologies could pull CO2 from the atmosphere at scale, mitigating climate change and reducing pollution-induced human casualties.<\/p>\n<p>Battery technology could advance, allowing for mass adoption of clean energy production and storage for homes, vehicles and more.<\/p>\n<p>On a grand, long-term scale, fusion energy could eliminate humanity\u2019s emissions, allowing for a cleaner, greener, healthier planet \u2013 not to mention, elevated living for all of humanity.<\/p>\n<p>If that sounds a bit idealistic, you\u2019re not wrong. But then again, the prospect of fusion energy was idealistic 50 years ago. This month, scientists proved fusion is possible. Why can\u2019t the other long-term benefits come true, too?<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>What does this mean for investors?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/qai\/2022\/12\/14\/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-the-future-of-clean-limitless-energy\/?sh=7051cf233916\">Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite all the gloom and doom there is still some items of good news. One such is a recent breakthrough in nuclear fusion, which offers the very real prospect of clean, cheap and unlimited energy  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":262819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Fringe_Science_New_Discoveries_and_Developments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=262817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262818,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262817\/revisions\/262818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/262819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=262817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=262817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=262817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}