Fusion Arrives - 243

 Fusion: Now there are Three.

What do you get when you funnel 2.05 megajoules of energy through 192 lasers aimed onto a frozen pellet of hydrogen isotopes (deuterium and tritium) on a pea sized gold cylinder? You get 3.15 megajoules of released energy.

This is a BIG DEAL. This was FUSION. It happened at our National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California on the 2nd of December.

I’ve read scientists comments on the milestone such as Doctor Karl Krushelnich at the University of Michigan, ““The announcement on Tuesday indicated that, for the first time in any experiment, the amount of energy produced in a fusion experiment exceeded the amount of energy put in. So it exceeded the breakeven criteria—so more energy out than energy in. And that was the first time that has ever been done.”

Similarly, Carolyn Kuranz, also a PHD in nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan stated, “The most important takeaway from the recent achievement of the National Ignition Facility is that they definitively created fusion ignition in the laboratory for the first time. So, the laser energy on the target was 2 megajoules, or 2 million joules. And the energy released from the experiment was 3 million joules.”

The director of the Lawrence Livermore laboratory and its 9000 staff members, Kim Budil, described the achievement as a proof of concept. “I don’t want to give you a sense that we’re going to plug the NIF into the grid: that is definitely not how this works,” she said during a press conference in Washington, DC. “But this is the fundamental building block of an inertial confinement fusion power scheme.”

If you watch the interviews the scientists are very reserved. This is in stark contrast to the endzone parties pro football players perform after a touchdown when there is a mega-party in the endzone as if someone just discovered a cure for cancer. Not so, it seems, with our scientists.

Let me tell you what we accomplished. Yes, we. US taxpayers helped make this science achievement happen just as we have other science breakthroughs such as COVID immunizations.  We funded the NIF (and its predecessors) for 70 years since its beginning in 1952. Prior to the 2nd of December, 2022 the only place fusion occurred in the universe was in a star or a hydrogen bomb. Now there are three places, a bomb, a star, and Lawrence Livermore California.

I think this is worth some hype and buildup. What is it like to throw the power to 192 lasers simultaneously? I think of Dr Frankenstein putting the juice to the Frankenstein monster.  What are the sounds and the smells? Were any of the 9000 staff members a little excited? Did Doctor Budil ask everyone to turn their coffee makers off before the experiment just to make sure one of the 192 lasers didn’t come up short?  Isn’t there a story here?

I know all too well fusion energy power will not come online soon enough to save us. Fossil fuels will have to be replaced with wind, solar and conventional nuclear. These three, by the way, are all science marvels too. But this massive step forward towards eventual fusion power is the first ever in the history of mankind.

There are some scientists a little more enthusiastic such as Michael Campbell former director of the fusion laboratory at the University of Rochester in New York and early proponent of the NIF, “There were a lot of people who didn’t think it was possible, but I and others who kept the faith feel somewhat vindicated.  I’m having a cosmo to celebrate.”

 Yeah, I’m joining you Mike! Happy Holidays to our scientists, to the US taxpayer, and to all of you reading this column who are concerned about the future of the earth. This isn’t a touchdown party. This is better…it’s a long overdue fusion kickoff party.

References: The AAAS SciLine, Scientific American, Wikipedia.

COSMO I

1.5 oz. vodka 

1 oz. Cointreau 

0.5 oz. fresh lime juice 

1 1/2 dashes cranberry juice

 

RASPBERRY COSMO

4 oz raspberry vodka (chilled in freezer) 

1 oz triple sec 

1 fresh lime juice                

3 oz cranberry juice   

3 oz raspberry juice   

2 frozen raspberries

 

COSMO II

3 oz. vodka 

2 oz. triple sec 

2 oz. cranberry juice

1 oz. fresh lime juice

Final Step:

After mixing in a shaker and pouring in a chilled cocktail glass, slice off a patch of lemon rind to squeeze off a bit of burnt lemon oil. Burnt, of course, with a flash of laser light..or if you are a Luddite, a match.

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