Scientists use a laser to obtain a record 1.3 million Joules of thermonuclear energy

The essence of the experiment was that scientists from the National Ignition Laboratory (NIF) penetrated with a laser into

a tiny capsule that launched thermonuclear reactions that produced more than 10 quadrillion watts of energy in 100 trillionths of a second.

The experiment released about 70% of the energy from the laser light used to drive fusion reactions, bringing the facility much closer to ignition than ever before.

Scientists were able to reach this threshold bythe capsule absorbs only a fraction of the total laser energy focused on it, and the reactions actually produce more energy than is directly expended to ignite them.

Nuclear fusion is the same process as“powers” ​​the Sun. For scientists, it is an attractive energy source because it will not produce climate-warming greenhouse gases or dangerous, long-lived radioactive waste. In nuclear fusion, hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form helium, releasing energy in the process. But nuclear fusion requires extreme temperatures and pressures, making it difficult to control and control.

In thermonuclear experiments conducted byNIF, 192 laser beams converge on a small cylinder containing a pea-sized fuel capsule. When this powerful laser pulse hits the cylinder, X-rays are emitted outside, vaporizing the outside of the capsule and exploding the fuel inside. It is a mixture of deuterium and tritium. When the fuel explodes, it reaches the extreme density, temperature, and pressure required to convert hydrogen to helium. This helium can further heat the rest of the fuel, called alpha heating, causing a fusion chain reaction.

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