Reno Reporter

Nuclear fusion met a milestone earlier this month when the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced that researchers had achieved the breakeven point, where fusion produced more energy than creating it expended.

What does that mean for the future of power in America? The University of Nevada, Reno, (UNR) tried to shed some light on that when it asked energy experts to discuss the achievement.

"Really the 'holy grail' of fusion research is this idea of a Q>1 or scientific ‘breakeven' where more energy comes out of the fusion plasma than is put in,” researcher Taylor Wilson said in a UNR release. “What’s so exciting about the news from NIF is this goal of fusion ignition has been achieved for the first time. That means we are finally in these conditions where the fusion fuel is being heated in large part by the reaction itself and there is fascinating new physics to learn in this new regime.” 

Wilson, a graduate of Davidson Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, was 14 years old when he constructed a nuclear reactor in his parents' garage. Later, he began working in physics professor emeritus Ron Phaneuf's research lab at UNR. The recent breakthrough in fusion energy is described as being everything but normal by Phaneuf and Wilson.

Fusion describes the reaction that occurs when two atoms collide and merge. The process itself requires a high-intensity heat, which is why fusion hasn’t really been commercially practical.

“Fusion reactions themselves are easy,” Wilson said. “I did it here in the physics department when I was I was 14, and we’ve been getting better over the decades at controlling fusion plasmas, but up until now that goal of ‘breakeven’ has been elusive.”

It’s hard to achieve because it requires the right density, confinement time and temperature. 

“Whether it’s an electrostatic device like my early experiments, or a magnetic bottle, or the world’s largest laser like NIF, these are the extremes of temperature and pressure, and keeping everything intact at those conditions long enough to burn the plasma isn’t an easy feat!” Wilson said.

He applauded the physicists and engineers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for seeing through the process, working out the problem and finally achieving a decades-old goal they have been trying to accomplish.