Cyrus Taylor and Philip Taylor (CWRU Physics)
Date: Thu. March 23rd, 2023, 4:00 pm-5:00 pmLocation: Rockefeller 301 and via Zoom
Progress in nuclear fusion: hope or hype?
On December 13, 2022, the Department of Energy announced “fusion ignition,” an “energy breakthrough” that received massive publicity. It was “a long-awaited milestone in reproducing the power of the sun in a laboratory” as well as, according to White House Science Adviser Arati Prebhakar, a sign of possible progress “to the possibilities for clean energy.”Yet December’s milestone was “long-awaited” because physicists have been seeking ways to control and use fusion reactions at least since the 1950s, with extremely limited success. The big news was that researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the first time ever created a reaction that produced more energy than was used to start the reaction. But this reaction only created 50% more energy than was put into it, and lasted less than one 100-trillionth of a second. How hopeful should we be?