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Most “breakthroughs” are not really breakthroughs, they are incremental steps forward, but occasionally, scientists discover something truly new, a whole new category, that can be a breakthrough. Today the Department of Energy is announcing that for the first time, scientists have produced a fusion reaction that produces more energy than it takes to make the reaction, a “net positive gain.” And that is a big deal since scientists have been trying to make this happen for decades and there is a possibility, that someday, this could be a whole new energy source that would be unlimited and cheap and potentially cleaner than anything we currently have to produce electricity.
The new development is said to have happened at the US National Ignition Facility located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. There, they have the largest laser on the planet, and the reaction they got happens in a billionth of a second.
Keep in mind, that what the laboratory has been able to do once a day would need to be replicated about once every second to be a viable commercial energy source. In some ways, this is a bit like the Wright Brother’s plane lifting off the sand at Kitty Hawk, it is a long way from commercial flight.
Experts say that it might take a decade, maybe even longer, to bring this to a consumer level.
What is fusion?
The notion is based on an understanding of how the Sun gets its energy, essentially smashing atoms together. The Department of Energy explains it this way:
Fusion occurs when two nuclei combine to form a new nucleus. This process occurs in our Sun and other stars. Creating conditions for fusion on Earth involves generating and sustaining a plasma. Plasmas are gases that are so hot that electrons are freed from atomic nuclei. Researchers use electric and magnetic fields to control the resulting collection of ions and electrons because they have electrical charges. At sufficiently high temperatures, ions can overcome repulsive electrostatic forces and fuse together. This process—fusion—releases energy.
Scientists are excited and careful not to overstate this development. As one expert put it, it is a scientific success but a long way from commercial success.
“This result is a major breakthrough in fusion science. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory uses the largest laser in the world to compress heavy hydrogen to conditions similar to those in the center of the sun. The lasers enter the ends of a centimeter-scale cylinder, hitting its inner walls, making them glow x-ray hot. These x-rays then heat a sphere at the center that contains the nuclear fuel.
The outside of the sphere vaporizes and becomes a plasma, that rushes off the surface, creating an imploding ’spherical rocket’ which in a few billionths of a second reaches velocities of order 400 kilometers per second. The subsequent ‘crunch’ at the center is tailored in a specific way to make a hot spark in the middle, and the density of the compressed ‘fuel’ surrounding the spark is so great that the nuclear fusion reaction takes place in about a tenth of a billionth of a second – faster than the tiny hot sphere can fly apart. It is thus confined by its own inertia, and thus this method of fusion is called inertial confinement fusion. The other major approach – magnetic fusion – uses the same heavy hydrogen fuel, but with a plasma far less dense than normal air, and thus the nuclei bump into each other less frequently, and in that approach the plasma needs to kept in its magnetic ‘bottle’ for several seconds in order for enough reactions to take place. The aim of both methods is to get more energy out than is put in.
Dr. Robbie Scott, of the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Central Laser Facility Plasma Physics Group, who contributed to this research, said:
“Fusion has the potential to provide a near-limitless, safe, clean, source of carbon-free baseload energy. This seminal result from the National Ignition Facility is the first laboratory demonstration of fusion ‘energy-gain’ – where more fusion energy is output than input by the laser beams. It cannot be understated what a huge breakthrough this is for laser fusion research. More importantly however, is that fact that it paves the way for the rapid development of Laser Inertial Fusion Energy – power generation by Laser Fusion.
“The experiment demonstrates unambiguously that the physics of Laser Fusion works. In order to transform NIF’s result into power production a lot of work remains, but this is a key step along the path. Next steps include the demonstration of even higher fusion energy-gain and the further development of more efficient methods to drive the implosion.”
The quest to capture fusion technology precedes the space race. In the 1950’s, the Russians built a fusion technology called “tokamak.” Following that, other countries including the U.S. and European joint efforts produced similar machines in the decades that followed. There are now 200 tokamaks around the world. In one instance, 35 countries came together to build the ITER tokamak. That effort included the Americans, Russians, China, Korea, and Japan among others. One year ago, December 2021, JET tokamak in England produced what was then a record amount of energy. You can see what these devices look like here.
Professor Wark explained what is needed now:
“The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory experiment shows that scientists can get more energy out than put in by the laser itself. This is great progress indeed, but still more is needed: first we need to get much more out that is put in so to account for losses in generating the laser light etc. (although the technology for creating efficient lasers has also leapt forward in recent years).
Secondly, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory could in principle produce this sort of result about once a day – a fusion power plant would need to do it ten times per second. However, the important takeaway point is that the basic science is now clearly well understood, and this should spur further investment. It is encouraging to see that the private sector is starting to wake up to the possibilities, although still long term, of these important emerging technologies.”
Why is the Biden administration excited about this?
The Washington Post points out:
Huge amounts of public and private funds have been funneled into the fusion race worldwide, with the aim of ultimately manufacturing fusion machinery that could bring electricity to the grid with no carbon footprint, no radioactive waste and far fewer resources than it takes to harness solar and wind power. Beyond the climate benefits, promoters say it could help bring cheap electricity to impoverished parts of the world.
If the technology can be developed fast enough, it could be a significant factor in producing energy in a way that offsets climate change caused by carbon emissions.
The bottom line is that after 70 years of experimentation, this is a first. By using fusion technology, scientists have gotten more energy out of a reaction than was required to produce the reaction and that means they generated energy. Replicating and harnessing that technology is the next step, and there is an environmental urgency to do so in less than the 70 years it took to get this far.
The 2022 Cuban migration grows to record levels
The New York Times explored why so many Cubans are risking their lives to leave the island right now. The Times reports, “the current wave is remarkable — larger than the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis combined, until recently the island’s two biggest migration events.”
The story continues:
The country has been hit by a one-two-punch of tighter U.S. sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic, which eviscerated one of Cuba’s lifelines — the tourism industry. Food has become even more scarce and more expensive, lines at pharmacies with scant supplies begin before dawn and millions of people endure daily hours long blackouts.
Over the last year, nearly 250,000 Cubans, more than 2 percent of the island’s 11 million population, have migrated to the United States, most of them arriving at the southern border by land, according to U.S. government data.
Gangs now control 60% of Haiti
The other horrific story unfolding in the Caribbean is in Haiti, where gangs now control 60% of the country, the U.N. reports. Tens of thousands of people face starvation, not just in the countryside, but also in the nation’s capital. There is a fuel crisis and virtually no government. The U.N. also reports a cholera outbreak. Tell me again: How is this and the Cuba crisis not on national newscasts and newspaper front pages?
California ban on flavored tobacco begins next week
The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the California ban on flavored tobacco, including menthol cigarettes, to begin as planned next week. The court gave no reason for its decision not to get involved in the state’s ban. In fact, this was the entire Court statement:
(U.S. Supreme Court)
Tobacco company RJ Reynolds and several small companies wanted the Court to block the law that 63% of California voters approved last month. Menthol cigarettes make up about a third of the tobacco market the companies say.
The CDC has been saying for years that banning menthol cigarettes would go a long way toward reducing smoking. This is from the CDC’s website:
(CDC)
The CDC says:
As of April 2022, over 150 U.S. communities have implemented laws prohibiting the sale of menthol and other flavored tobacco products. In 2019, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to prohibit the sale of menthol and other flavored tobacco products.
Studies of local U.S. policies have shown that restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products reduces the proportion of youth who try or use tobacco products. Evidence from other countries supports the public health benefits of removing menthol cigarettes from the marketplace.
For example, after a 2017 law prohibiting the sale of menthol cigarettes was implemented in Ontario, Canada, adults who smoked menthol cigarettes reported high rates of quit attempts and quit successes. Adults who had smoked menthol cigarettes daily before the law went into effect and tried quitting smoking were more likely to report having quit cigarettes than adults who had smoked non-menthol cigarettes.
The California law, known as Proposition 31, goes further than previous restrictions and defines flavored tobacco products as those “that have a flavor, apart from the regular tobacco flavor. For example, the flavor could include fruit, mint, menthol, honey, chocolate, or vanilla.” The law defines a tobacco product flavor enhancer as that which creates a flavor when added to a tobacco product. Proposition 31 charges a $250 penalty against stores and vending machine owners for each violation.”
