NIF reactor passes major milestone with repeated ignition - Interesting Engineering

NIF reactor passes major milestone with repeated ignition
US nuclear fusion laboratory repeatedly achieves net energy gainThe National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has achieved ignition multiple times this year.Christopher McFaddenPublished: Dec 24, 2023 12:56 AM ESTscienceImage of NIF’s target chamber for its nuclear fusion experiment.NIF Get a daily digest of the latest news in tech, science, and technology, delivered right to your mailbox. Subscribe now.By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Policies You may unsubscribe at any time.Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) have reported that their nuclear fusion reactor has managed to achieve repeated "ignition" (net zero or net energy gain) repeatedly over the last year. First achieved about a year ago in December 2022, the NIF has repeated the trick multiple times in 2023. Located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, this is a fantastic achievement and very promising for the future of clean, near-inexhaustible energy. A major fusion milestone“I’m feeling pretty good,” Richard Town, a physicist who heads the lab’s inertial-confinement fusion science program at the LLNL, told Nature. “I think we should all be proud of the achievement," he added. See Also Related Is fusion energy getting any closer to reality? JT-60SA: World's largest nuclear fusion reactor powers up in Japan Finally! Nuclear fusion scientists achieved net energy production in a historic first The NIF was not built as a power plant but rather as a research facility to recreate and study the reactions that occur during thermonuclear detonations. This was necessary after the United States banned underground weapons testing in 1992. The facility has enabled higher fusion yields that have been utilized to advance nuclear weapons research and also sparked interest in fusion as a clean energy source.The NIF is not a nuclear fusion reactor in the traditional sense of power generation. Rather, it's a research facility designed to achieve nuclear fusion in a controlled laboratory setting for experimental and research purposes. However, it is an important "proving-ground" for the technology. According to Saskia Mordijck, a physicist at William & Mary, building the NIF was a risky undertaking for many, but its triumph has made a significant impact on both the fusion community and public perception. The NIF's success has been a "leap of faith" for many, according to Mordijck. “In that sense, what is important is that scientists said they could do something, and then they actually did do something," she said. The NIF project uses 192 laser beams to fire at a frozen pellet of deuterium and tritium, two hydrogen isotopes. This pellet is contained within a diamond capsule that is suspended inside a cylinder made of gold. When the laser beams hit the pellet, it causes an implosion which results in the isotopes fusing together, creating helium and producing a large amount of energy. On December 5th, 2022, the fusion reactions generated roughly 54% more energy than the laser beams that were delivered to the target for the first time. Impressive, but this was only the start. On 30th July 2023, the facility broke its previous record by delivering 2.05 megajoules of energy to the target. This time, the implosion generated 3.88 megajoules of fusion energy, which is an 89% increase over the input energy. The scientists at the laboratory achieved ignition during two more attempts in October of 2023. Additionally, the laboratory's calculations suggest that two other attempts in June and September 2023 generated slightly more energy than the lasers provided, but not enough to confirm ignition.To many scientists, the recent results indicate that the laboratory has entered a new phase. They have finally been able to achieve a goal they have been pursuing for over ten years. Although the implosion is still imperfect due to minor defects in the diamond capsule or tiny variations in the laser pulses, researchers are now more familiar with the primary variables involved and how to control them.Still a long way to goProviding fusion energy to the power grid is a complex and challenging task that requires advanced technology. The NIF is home to the world’s largest laser, but it is not suitable for this task due to its inefficiency. More than 99% of the energy that is used for a single ignition attempt is lost before it reaches the target, making the laser system highly ineffective.The Department of Energy's new inertial-fusion-energy research program has set a goal to develop more efficient laser systems that will, in part, plug this kind of energy leakage. 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