US achieves major breakthrough in fusion energy

Colombo (News 1st) - US scientists may have taken a major step forward in ending the world's reliance on fossil fuels with the successful creation of a nuclear fusion reaction with a net gain in energy, the type that powers the sun, in a lab, foreign media reported.

However, the energy gained from the recent experiment is very small, perhaps enough to heat 10 kettles of water, and would require many years or even decades of development before the technology that was used could be applied to build a commercially viable power station with a nuclear fusion reactor.

The breakthrough was by scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

This was the first time that scientists have been able to produce a fusion reaction that resulted in a net energy gain, which would make it sustainable. Earlier fusion experiments resulted in minus or zero energy gains.

Uncontrolled nuclear fusion was first invented with the hydrogen bomb in 1952, also known as thermonuclear weapons or fusion weapons. Since then, scientists have been trying to recreate it in a controlled, sustainable manner in the lab.

Fusion is created by fusing together two atoms of Deuterium and Tritium, which are derivatives of Hydrogen, to form a single atom of Helium. The byproduct of this reaction is heat in the form of neutrons and alpha particles that can be used as energy.

This is different from nuclear fission, which is the splitting of an atom of Uranium or Plutonium to produce energy. Nuclear fission currently powers nuclear reactors around the world. Fusion also would not produce nuclear waste, or the safety risks of nuclear reactor meltdowns such as Chernobyl or Fukushima, which are major challenges with fission reactors.