Lawrence Livermore Repeats Fusion Energy Breakthrough

LIVERMORE, CA — Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility announced that they achieved a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the second time, a feat first reported by The Financial Times on Sunday.

On July 30, NIF conducted an experiment that produced a higher energy yield than the one in December, which garnered international attention as the first successful fusion experiment, the first step on the road toward near limitless clean energy produced by nuclear fusion.

At the time, the U.S. Energy Department hailed the achievement as a “major scientific breakthrough decades in the making that will pave the way for advancements in national defense and the future of clean power."

“In an experiment conducted on July 30, we repeated ignition at NIF,” LLNL spokesperson Paul Rhien told Patch. “As is our standard practice, we plan on reporting those results first at upcoming scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed publications.”

LLNL scientists focused a laser on fuel to fuse two light atoms into a denser atom, releasing leftover energy, which simulated conditions inside of a star. The experiment briefly generated 3.15 megajoules of energy output, more than the 2.05 megajoules from the laser energy used to drive it, according to the US Department of Energy. A single kilogram of fusion fuel could provide as much energy as 10 million kilograms of fossil fuel, yet does not produce any greenhouse gasses or radioactive waste, according to the Department of Energy.

Scientists have been trying to duplicate the same force that powers the sun since the 1930s, and LLNL scientists were the first to generate more energy than they put in. Still, scientists warn it will be a while before the technology becomes commercially viable.