The £2.2billion superlab where scientists are creating a star on Earth

[Daox]

Kinda scary, kinda awesome... Very interesting.

According to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) team in Livermore, on November 2 they fired up the 192 lasers beams at the centre of the reactor and aimed them at a glass target containing tritium and deuterium gas.

The resulting release of energy was of a magnitude of 1.3 million mega joules, which was a world record and the peak radiation temperature measure at the core was approximately six million degrees Fahrenheit.

For a direct comparison, the temperature at the centre of the sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

However, this recent experiment was not 'live' in that no self-sustaining fusion reaction was set off, although the scientists at NIF are extremely confident for the future.

'The results of all of these experiments are extremely encouraging,' said the NIF director Ed Moses.

...

Unlike with fission power which is utilised at nuclear power stations and has seen accidents such as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, fusion power is safe and relatively green.

'Although fusion is a nuclear process, it also differs from the fission process in that there is no radioactive by-product from the fusion reaction only helium gas and a neutron,' said a spokesperson for NIF.

'Fusion energy is very promising as a long-term future energy source, as the fuels required to generate it are relatively abundant on Earth and the creation of energy is safe and friendly to the environment.

'Deuterium is extracted from seawater, and tritium is derived from the metal lithium, a common element in soil.

'One gallon of seawater would provide the equivalent energy of 300 gallons petrol, and fuel from 50 cups of water contains the energy equivalent of two tons of coal.

'A fusion power plant would be carbon free, as well as produce considerably lower amounts and less difficult-to-store radioactive byproducts than current nuclear power plants.

'Also, there would be no danger of a runaway reaction or core ''meltdown'' in a fusion power plant.

'Consequently, fusion energy would be beneficial to both the environment and the economy.

'NIF is just the first step, and further research and technology development are needed to reach this goal.'

Read more: The £2.2billion superlab where scientists are creating a star on Earth | Mail Online

[RobertSmalls]

My favorite fusion reactor project is ITER. They have the ambitious goal of producing more power than the reactor consumes, and to run for many minutes instead of seconds like current reactors. And it's still 30 years away from completion!

I don't mind spending billions on long-shot research like this, because a commercially viable fusion reactor (which ITER itself has no ambition to be) would provide a sustainable, bountiful source of energy, and pretty much immediately resolve any questions about where our grandchildren will get their energy from.