As suppliers of energy measurement technologies and solutions and as a company committed to reducing consumption, emissions and environmental impacts, we enthusiastically share the most important news of the last decade for the international scientific community: the creation by the USA, for the first time in history, of nuclear fusion.
A revolutionary step towards unlimited, clean and low-cost energy.
How does nuclear fusion work?
Nuclear fusion is the thermonuclear reaction that takes place in the Sun and in other stars, which produces energy from the fusion of four hydrogen atoms which generates one of helium.
Compared to fission, which powers current nuclear power plants, fusion generates smaller quantities of radiation and waste that are easier to manage and would therefore make it possible to have a clean, safe, cheaper and practically inexhaustible source of energy available. (image source: Ansa)
A significant step: an experiment achieved a net energy gain for the first time
At a press conference in Washington, the United States Department of Energy officially announced that the National Ignition Facility, a research installation housed in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, achieved a result on December 5 that was being worked on for over 50 years: nuclear fusion, using so-called “laser confinement”, a method different from that used in many other projects based on magnetic confinement. (image source: Ansa)
The experiment made it possible to generate more energy than that used to create it: 3.15 MegaJoules of energy compared to 2.05 MegaJoules which were used to generate the fusion with 192 lasers in a few billionths of a second.
Thus, the so-called “net gain” of energy was obtained.
Huge potential, but it will take time
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said, “This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero-carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society”. However, although this is an unimaginable result until a few years ago, there are obstacles and it could still take thirty years of further scientific progress and huge investments to be able to obtain energy in a simple and accessible way to power productive and urban areas.
For any energy efficiency and measurement solution, our technical consultants are only at your disposal.