Page 3 - aruba-today-20221214

A3
U.S. NEWS Wednesday 14 december 2022
Fusion breakthrough is a milestone for climate, clean energy

By MATTHEW DALY, MI- nificant advance nonethe-
CHAEL PHILLIS, JENNIFER less. “It’s almost like it’s a
McDERMOTT and MADDIE starting gun going off,” said
BURAKOFF professor Dennis Whyte, di-
Associated Press rector of the Plasma Sci-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sci- ence and Fusion Center at
entists announced Tuesday the Massachusetts Institute
that they have for the first of Technology and a lead-
time produced more en- er in fusion research. “We
ergy in a fusion reaction should be pushing towards
than was used to ignite it a making fusion energy sys-
major breakthrough in the tems available to tackle cli-
decades-long quest to har- mate change and energy
ness the process that pow- security.” Kim Budil, director
ers the sun. Researchers at of the Livermore Lab, said
the Lawrence Livermore there are “very significant
National Laboratory in Cal- hurdles” to commercial use
ifornia achieved the result, of fusion technology, but
which is called net energy advances in recent years
gain, the Energy Depart- mean the technology is
ment said. Net energy gain likely to be widely used in A major scientific breakthrough in fusion research is announced at the Department of Energy with,
has been an elusive goal “a few decades” rather from left, Kim Budil, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security
because fusion happens than 50 or 60 years as pre- Administration director Jill Hruby, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, National Nuclear Security
at such high temperatures viously expected. Administration Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs Marvin Adams, and Arati Prabhakar,
and pressures that it is in- Fusion works by pressing the president’s science adviser, in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022.
credibly difficult to control. hydrogen atoms into each Associated Press
The breakthrough will pave other with such force that
the way for advancements they combine into he-
in national defense and lium, releasing enormous
the future of clean power, amounts of energy and
Energy Secretary Jennifer heat. Unlike other nuclear
Granholm and other offi- reactions, it doesn’t create
cials said. radioactive waste.
“Ignition allows us to rep- President Joe Biden called
licate for the first time cer- the breakthrough a good
tain conditions that are example of the need to
found only in the stars and continue to invest in re-
the sun,’’ Granholm told a search and development.
news conference in Wash- “Look what’s going on
ington. “This milestone from the Department of En-
moves us one significant ergy on the nuclear front.
step closer to the possibility There’s a lot of good news
of zero-carbon abundant on the horizon,” he said at
fusion energy powering our the White House.
society.’’ Billions of dollars and de-
Fusion ignition is “one of cades of work have gone
the most impressive scien- into fusion research that
tific feats of the 21st cen- has produced exhilarating
tury,” Granholm said, add- results for fractions of a sec-
ing that the breakthrough ond. Previously, research-
“will go down in the history ers at the National Ignition
books.” Facility, the division of Law-
Appearing with Gran- rence Livermore where the
holm, White House science success took place, used
adviser Arati Prabhakar 192 lasers and tempera-
called the fusion ignition tures multiple times hotter
“a tremendous example of than the center of the sun
what perseverance really to create an extremely
can achieve” and “an en- brief fusion reaction.
gineering marvel beyond The lasers focus an enor-
belief.’’ mous amount of heat on a
Proponents of fusion hope small metal can. The result
that it could one day offer is a superheated plasma
nearly limitless, carbon-free environment where fusion
energy and displace fossil may occur.
fuels and other traditional Riccardo Betti, a professor
energy sources. Producing at the University of Roch-
energy that powers homes ester and expert in laser
and businesses from fusion fusion, said there’s a long
is still decades away. But road ahead before the net
researchers said the an- energy gain leads to sus-
nouncement marked a sig- tainable electricity.q