Just yesterday, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility in California created the first fusion reaction in a laboratory setting that produced more energy than it took to start the reaction (it released about 50% more energy).
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Nuclear fusion is a manufactured process replicating the same energy that powers the sun. It occurs when two or more atoms are combined into one larger one, generating massive energy as heat.
Just yesterday, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility in California created the first fusion reaction in a laboratory setting that produced more energy than it took to start the reaction (it released about 50% more energy).
This is big news for the planet!
Nuclear fission is the kind of energy that currently powers nuclear reactors. Like fusion, the heat from splitting atoms is also used to generate energy. Nuclear energy is an entirely clean and emissions-free power source; however, fusion doesn’t produce the same volatile radioactive waste as fission.
We are still far from having nuclear fusion as a power source. This project, while monumental, only produced enough energy to boil approximately 2.5 gallons of water. While seemingly insignificant, this experiment proved it’s possible to create more energy than they started with.
A clean-energy future is, in fact, possible, and yesterday’s ground-breaking innovation proved that we're on the right track!
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The MIT Climate & Energy Prize competition seeks to move the world closer to net zero carbon emissions by empowering ambitious entrepreneurs to solve the world’s most difficult climate-related challenges.
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