still decades away but the horizon is getting closer

still decades away, but the horizon is getting closer

Traditionally, physicists liked to say that the dream of energy generated by nuclear fusion always lay 50 years in the future. Whether it was 1950 or 2000, it was always “50 years from now.” But since 2022 the horizon could be getting closer.

In December of that year, preliminary results from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LNLL) in California reported a “historic” breakthrough. For the first time, a nuclear fusion reactor had produced more energy than it needed to produce.

A step that is obvious. Nobody wants an energy source that uses more electricity than it produces. But a step that reminds us of the immense difficulties that nuclear fusion brings with it.

Merger and split

Fusion is what happens in a star like our sun and makes it shine permanently.

While humanity has mastered nuclear fission for three quarters of a century – including in nuclear power plants and atomic bombs – fusion has so far only been possible under very controlled conditions and in fractions of a second… As with these experimental power plants, known as Tokamak, since the 1960s.