Achieving Nuclear Fusion Ignition

Can't Stop Thinking About

- By Darren Orf

Last November, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved a "scientific energy breakeven" in nuclear fusion, known as "ignition." This means the reaction generated more energy than it took to power it. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, NIF scientists produced 3.15 megajoules out compared to the 2.05 MJ of energy put in; about 3 megajoules can power a one-kilowatt microwave for about an hour.

"This sets fusion energy up as a possible energy source for the future," says Mickey Wade, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Fusion Energy division. Unaffiliated with NIF, Wade works closely with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a nuclear fusion tokamak. "Now we have to figure out how to take that up to another scale in terms of large amounts of energy production."