Fusion energy: Unlocking the power of the stars
If it looks like the set of some Hollywood sci-fi show, perhaps that's fitting, because what they are doing here is making stars on Earth. "We are able to make miniature stars, 'cause fusion is the same reaction that powers the Sun and stars," said Tammy Ma, who leads the Fusion Energy Initiative at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California. It's part of the same government laboratory that ensures the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear stockpile.
"Every time we do a fusion experiment on the NIF, we are actually the hottest place in the entire solar system, hotter than the center of the Sun," Ma said.
The scientists here are using the largest laser ever built. It's 1,000 times more powerful than the entire U.S. electrical grid, and is housed in a massive room the size of a three football fields. Here, 192 laser beams travel nearly a mile, and then focus in on a tiny target, or fuel pellet, smaller than a peppercorn. When the lasers hit the pellet, the atoms "fuse" together, releasing energy in the process.
That little fuel pellet is only about two millimeters in diameter. But the consequences could be huge.
Fusion is a process that merges atoms together, and releases more energy than fission (which splits atoms apart). Fission is used by today's nuclear power plants and creates hazardous nuclear waste; fusion does not.
Fusion would theoretically provide a nearly-limitless source of clean and safe energy, powering our world without the fossil fuels that are warming the planet and contributing to climate change. It would make energy-intensive technologies like vertical farming and water desalination much cheaper, potentially solving the world's food and water problems. Ma said, "It is completely clean. There's no carbon anywhere in the equation. There's no high-level nuclear waste. You can place fusion power plants nearly anywhere. It could help meet all of the energy needs for the U.S. now and into the future, even as our energy needs rise."
But fusion is hard. After 60 years of research by scientists at NIF, they finally generated a reaction (also called "ignition") that produced more energy than it consumed. The breakthrough, in 2022, crucial to ever creating a fusion power plant, made headlines around the world. Humans had unlocked the power of the stars.
Inside the nuclear fusion breakthrough that could be a step to unlimited clean energy in the distant future ("60 Minutes")
They have achieved ignition several times since then, and now the race is on to generate enough energy to consistently power a commercial fusion plant.
Bob Mumgaard is CEO and co-founder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems outside of Boston, one of more than two dozen fusion startups getting billions of dollars in funding from the government and investors. "It's gonna take time, it's gonna take work, but this is the birth of an industry," Mumgaard said.
Instead of lasers, Commonwealth uses a cloud of super-heated plasma that burns at around 180 million degrees Fahrenheit, held in place by massive magnets that the company manufactures on site. "The magnets in this machine will be the strongest magnets in the world," Mumgaard said. "[They] could lift up an aircraft carrier."
Commonwealth expects to complete its demonstration reactor next year. It just announced plans to build its first full-scale power plant in Virginia, but that won't deliver energy to the grid until sometime next decade. The demonstration reactor, Mumgaard said, "is the penultimate step to that."
Critics point out that fusion power has been an ever-elusive holy grail, always 20 to 30 years away. But startups like Commonwealth say this time is different. The technology is advancing as fast as the need for clean energy is rising – stars aligning in the quest to create stars here on Earth.
"This is not a paper exercise for us," Mumgaard said. "We're putting this machine together, we're buying the parts, we're machining the parts, and it's all coming together at the exact time the world really needs something like this. I think that's a really cool story."
Fusion Energy Initiative, National Ignition Facility, Livermore, Calif.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Devens, Mass.
Story produced by Chris Spinder and John Goodwin. Editor: Emanuele Secci.
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