![]() ![]() Scientists have been trying for decades to generate an output like the one achieved at the NIF, and the results are undoubtedly an important scientific and technical milestone. That project, its designers claim, will create a reaction that outputs ten times more energy than researchers add in. Though that experiment didn’t reach the break-even point in terms of energy output, the results helped validate an approach being pursued by a multi-nation consortium building the larger $22 billion ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) tokamak project in France. Instead of lasers, scientists there used a donut-shaped tokamak, a machine that uses magnetic fields to heat hydrogen atoms to extraordinary temperatures in order to create a fusion reaction. The NIF success also comes a few months after another successful fusion experiment in the U.K. In July of this year, Nature reported that scientists at NIF had ceased trying to replicate their results from last year, and were instead focusing on a new strategy. Whisperings started, with some physics community observers calling for the facility to finally be shut down. Then, for months afterward, the NIF team failed to replicate the results. It wasn’t as much as the 1.9 MJ that the lasers blasted into it, but it was still eight times more energy output than the facility’s previous record. Today’s news builds on a notable success achieved by the National Ignition Facility in August 2021, when it fired its lasers on a capsule of deuterium and tritium (hydrogen atoms with an extra one or two neutrons, respectively), setting off a reaction that unleashed 1.3 megajoules (MJ) of energy. “They deserve a tremendous amount of credit for slogging through this.” “We were not sure if it was ever going to work,” says Peter Littlewood, a physics professor at the University of Chicago and former director of Argonne National Lab, a DOE research center. “This milestone will undoubtedly spark even more discovery.” “This is a landmark achievement for the researchers and staff at the National Ignition Facility,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a press release. ![]() Department of Energy (DOE) announced the development on Dec. After bringing in an external team of scientists to confirm the findings, the U.S. (Notably we have uncontrolled fusion reactions down pat-they’re the basis of hydrogen bombs). 5-after decades of effort-scientists at the laboratory finally created a controlled fusion reaction that released more energy than the researchers blasted into it, an important step toward the long sought-after goal of generating almost unlimited power from clean, plentiful fusion energy. There are two types of light-water reactors operating in America.On Dec. This means they use normal water as both a coolant and neutron moderator. Types of Light-water Reactors in the United StatesĪll commercial nuclear reactors in the United States are light-water reactors. The heat created by fission turns the water into steam, which spins a turbine to produce carbon-free electricity. The moderator helps slow down the neutrons produced by fission to sustain the chain reaction.Ĭontrol rods can then be inserted into the reactor core to reduce the reaction rate or withdrawn to increase it. Inside the reactor vessel, the fuel rods are immersed in water which acts as both a coolant and moderator. A reactor core is typically made up of a couple hundred assemblies, depending on power level. ![]() Typically, more than 200 of these rods are bundled together to form a fuel assembly. The uranium is processed into small ceramic pellets and stacked together into sealed metal tubes called fuel rods. ![]()
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