<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>From: <strong class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">Merle Lefkoff</strong> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:merlelefkoff@gmail.com">merlelefkoff@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Thu, Jan 27, 2022 at 3:35 PM<br>Subject: Fwd: Researchers achieve milestone on path toward nuclear fusion energy -- Reuters, LLNL & Nature<br><br></div><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><br><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"If you want to make a camp fire, you want to get the fire to hot enough that the wood can keep itself
burning," said Alex Zylstra, an experimental physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory .<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"This is a good analogy for a burning plasma, where the fusion is now starting to become self-sustaining,"
Zylstra said.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">The scientists directed 192 laser beams toward a small target containing a capsule less than a tenth
of an inch (about 2 mm) in diameter filled with fusion fuel consisting of a plasma of deuterium and tritium - two isotopes, or forms, of hydrogen.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:30.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">Researchers achieve milestone on path toward nuclear fusion energy<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">By Will Dunham<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - U.S. government scientists said on Wednesday they have taken an important
step in the long trek toward making nuclear fusion - the very process that powers stars - a viable energy source for humankind.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">Using the world's largest laser, the researchers coaxed fusion fuel for the first time to heat itself
beyond the heat they zapped into it, achieving a phenomenon called a burning plasma that marked a stride toward self-sustaining fusion energy.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">The energy produced was modest - about the equivalent of nine nine-volt batteries of the kind that power
smoke detectors and other small devices. But the experiments at a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory facility in California represented a milestone in the decades-long <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/science-fusion/u-s-scientists-achieve-turning-point-in-fusion-energy-quest-idINDEEA1B0GC20140212" target="_blank"><span style="color:#404040">quest</span></a> to
harness fusion energy, even as the researchers cautioned that years of more work are needed.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">The experiments produced the self-heating of matter in a plasma state through nuclear fusion, which is
the combining of atomic nuclei to release energy. Plasma is one of the various states of matter, alongside solid, liquid and gas.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"If you want to make a camp fire, you want to get the fire to hot enough that the wood can keep itself
burning," said Alex Zylstra, an experimental physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - part of the U.S. Energy Department - and lead author of the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-021-01485-9" target="_blank"><span style="color:#404040">research
published</span></a> in the journal Nature.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"This is a good analogy for a burning plasma, where the fusion is now starting to become self-sustaining,"
Zylstra said.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">The scientists directed 192 laser beams toward a small target containing a capsule less than a tenth
of an inch (about 2 mm) in diameter filled with fusion fuel consisting of a plasma of deuterium and tritium - two isotopes, or forms, of hydrogen.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">At very high temperatures, the nucleus of the deuterium and the nucleus of the tritium fuse, a neutron
and a positively charged particle called an "alpha particle" - consisting of two protons and two neutrons - emerge, and energy is released.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:black"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><img border="0" width="471" height="384" style="width:4.9107in;height:4.0in" id="m_-6585909504826630165m_-7472387173527371785Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:17e9dadb8df6917eb1" alt="The Target Bay of the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, U.S., is seen in an undated handout image. NIF's 192 laser beams converge at the center of this giant sphere to make a tiny hydrogen fuel pellet implode. Damien Jemison/Handout via REUTERS "></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:black"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:black"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:#404040"><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:white">1/3</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:#404040"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:white">The Target Chamber of the National Ignition Facility is seen at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, U.S.,
in an undated handout image. A service system lift allows technicians to access the Target Chamber's interior for inspection and maintenance. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory/Handout via REUTERS<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:#404040"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:white">Read More</span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:white"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"Fusion requires that we get the fuel incredibly hot in order for it to burn - like a regular fire, but
for fusion we need about a hundred million degrees (Fahrenheit). For decades we've been able to cause fusion reactions to occur in experiments by putting a lot of heating into the fuel, but this isn't good enough to produce net energy from fusion," Zylstra
said.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"Now, for the first time, fusion reactions occurring in the fuel provided most of the heating - so fusion
is starting to dominate over the heating we did. This is a new regime called a burning plasma," Zylstra said.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">Unlike burning fossil fuels or the fission process of existing nuclear power plants, fusion offers the
prospect of abundant energy without pollution, radioactive waste or greenhouse gases. Nuclear fission energy comes from splitting atoms. Fusion energy comes from fusing atoms together, just like inside stars, including our sun.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">Private-sector ventures - dozens of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-zero-carbon-fusion-energy-startup-helion-raises-500-mln-2021-11-05/#:~:text=Nov%205%20(Reuters)%20-%20Helion,the%20company%20at%20%243%20billion.&text=It%20creates%20enormous%20amounts%20of%20energy" target="_blank"><span style="color:#404040">companies</span></a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/eni-completes-landmark-test-energy-fusion-project-2021-09-08/#:~:text=MILAN%2C%20Sept%208%20(Reuters),to%20generate%20carbon-free%20power" target="_blank"><span style="color:#404040">institutions</span></a> -
also are pursuing a fusion energy future, with some <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chevron-investment-nuclear/oil-major-chevron-invests-in-nuclear-fusion-startup-zap-energy-idUSKCN25831E" target="_blank"><span style="color:#404040">oil companies</span></a> even
investing.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"Fusion energy is the holy grail of clean limitless energy," said Annie Kritcher of Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, lead designer for the experiments conducted in 2020 and 2021 at the National Ignition Facility and first author of a companion paper published in the journal Nature Physics.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">In these experiments, fusion produced about 10 times as much energy as went into heating the fuel, but
less than 10% of the total amount of laser energy because the process remains inefficient, Zylstra said. The laser was used for only about 10 billionths of a second in each experiment, with fusion production lasting 100 trillionths of a second, Kritcher added.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">Zylstra said he is encouraged by the progress.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#404040">"Making fusion a reality is an enormously complex technological challenge, and it will require serious
investment and innovation to make it practical and economical," Zylstra said. "I view fusion as a decadal-scale challenge for it to be a viable source of energy."<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt">***************************************************************<u></u><u></u></span></i></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt">Nothing in this mailing reflects an official position on the part of Sandia National Labs. Please write to me, Howard Passell,
</span></i><a href="mailto:hdpasse@sandia.gov" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#0563c1">hdpasse@sandia.gov</span></i></a><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt">, with comments, criticisms, or contributions, or if you wish to be added to or deleted from this
distribution group. Thanks --H. <u></u><u></u></span></i></p>
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</div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.<br>Center for Emergent Diplomacy<br><a href="http://emergentdiplomacy.org" target="_blank">emergentdiplomacy.org</a></div><div>Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA</div><div></div><div><br>mobile: (303) 859-5609<br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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