In December 2022, scientists from the United States Department of Energy (DoE) announced the successful production of nuclear fusion in a laboratory for the first time in history. Previously, nuclear fusion on earth could only be done through the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. The breakthrough made by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has finally been confirmed as authentic after undergoing equivalent retesting by 1370 researchers from 44 international institutions.
A total of 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of power is used by the laser to initiate fusion which then produces an energy output of 3.15 MJ. Even if nuclear fusion is successful, it is still on a small scale and short duration making it still impractical to generate clean energy in the short term.
Isotopes of deuterium and tritium are combined through a fusion process and they produce only helium and neutrons. No radioactive waste that is dangerous and can be used as a weapon is produced. Nuclear fusion power plants have been dreamed of since the 1960s and after more than 60 years, only now have they succeeded in producing more output power than input energy.
The results of the tests were published in the journal Physical Review Letters this month.
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