Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced Tuesday that scientists at a federal research facility have achieved a history-making fusion energy breakthrough. The researchers, she said, achieved fusion ignition — more energy resulted from a fusion reaction than the energy used to start the reaction.
“Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century,” she said.
In fusion, hydrogen atoms are pressed together with such force that they combine into helium and release large amounts of energy and heat, but without the radioactive waste caused by other nuclear reactions. Granholm said the discovery has large national security and environmental implications.
“Ignition allows us to replicate, for the first time, certain conditions that are found only in the stars and the sun,” Granholm said. “This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero-carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society.”
At the same time, Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — where the discovery was made — said that “very significant hurdles” must be crossed before the commercial use of fusion technology. She said the world may be “a few decades” off from wider use.
Riccardo Betti, a professor at the University of Rochester, told the Associated Press that the world is still a long way away before fusion technology creates sustainable energy solutions.
“You still don’t have the engine, and you still don’t have the tires,” Betti told the AP. “You can’t say that you have a car.”
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