U.S. scientists have scored a major breakthrough in fusion technology that could eventually lead to a new source of clean, inexpensive power, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday.
And it would not leave behind the piles of radioactive waste that the fleet of current fission reactors produce — and whose disposal has vexed Washington for decades.
“Just getting above one [in energy] net out is a milestone,” Paul Dabbar, a former DOE Undersecretary of Science who oversaw the National Labs fusion program, said in an interview. “Being able to contain fusion and get net energy out that we just accomplished, that was the biggest of the challenges” facing the idea of nuclear fusion becoming a widespread technology. “But believe me, they’re still plenty of others.
Livermore Lab Director Kimberly S. Budil said commercialization would still take “a few decades,” but was “moving to the foreground.”The experiments were conducted at Livermore’s National Ignition Facility, which runs the laser fusion research as a means of advancing U.S. weapons capability, rather than as a source of commercial energy.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Energy officials announce nuclear fusion breakthrough, herald a 'milestone for the future of clean energy' | CNNUS Department of Energy officials announced a history-making accomplishment in nuclear fusion Tuesday; for the first time, US scientists produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to power the experiment.
Read more »
Nuclear-Fusion Energy Breakthrough Reported by Scientists at U.S. LabThe Energy Department said a controlled fusion reaction at a federal research facility produced more energy than it consumed, a milestone in transforming fusion into a practical source of clean energy.
Read more »
Fusion Energy Breakthrough: US Scientists Reach Milestone in Quest for Clean PowerFor the first time, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California were able to produce more energy in a fusion reaction than used to ignite it, something called net energy gain.
Read more »
Reports of 'Breakthrough' in Fusion Power Fuels Hopes of Major Clean Energy Progress'If this is true, we are witnessing a moment of history: controlling the power source of the stars is the greatest technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken,' said one physicist as others cau
Read more »
US scientists make major breakthrough in ‘limitless, zero-carbon’ fusion energy: reportGovernment scientists have reportedly made a major breakthrough in fusion energy, producing more energy from the reaction than it consumed.
Read more »
Nuclear fusion 'breakthrough' reportedly arrivesEnergy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected tomorrow to announce a 'major scientific breakthrough' in nuclear fusion energy — which promises almost limitless carbon-free power.
Read more »