{"id":3780,"date":"2022-02-23T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3780"},"modified":"2022-02-09T07:17:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T07:17:14","slug":"nuclear-fusion-scores-yet-another-win-with-burning-plasma-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/nuclear-fusion-scores-yet-another-win-with-burning-plasma-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Fusion Scores Yet Another Win With \u201cBurning Plasma\u201d Record"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Avid readers of Modern Sciences shouldn\u2019t be surprised at this point that we\u2019re covering yet another milestone in <a href=\"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/chinas-artificial-sun-tokamak-breaks-plasma-confinement-records\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the path towards nuclear fusion<\/a>; we\u2019ve reported on <a href=\"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/koreas-kstar-fusion-reactor-sets-30-second-plasma-containment-record\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">several successes in the field<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/experts-look-to-argon-fluoride-lasers-for-nuclear-fusions-next-step\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">many times before<\/a>, all towards the holy grail of true plasma confinement. Now, with the help of <a href=\"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/scientists-use-192-lasers-to-get-near-nuclear-fusion-ignition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">their 192-strong laser array<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.llnl.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory<\/a> (LLNL)\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lasers.llnl.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Ignition Facility<\/a> (NIF) just achieved the long-sought creation of \u201cburning plasma.\u201d Their findings were reported in two papers published in the journals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-021-04281-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Nature<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41567-021-01485-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Nature Physics<\/em><\/a> respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You see, the long-term goal of all these tests and experiments is to create and sustain plasma that\u2019s enough to start a nuclear fusion reaction and keep it going. This is the reason why scientists the world over keep designing and redesigning their containment facilities; they are essentially trying to recreate on Earth what the Sun does out in space every single second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Threshold of Ignition\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8lN7PhJQbXY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory summarizes the vision and scope of their pursuit of nuclear fusion power in the video above. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2022)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thing is, that plasma will definitely be very hot and will need to stay that way in order for it to be self-sustaining. Containing the plasma has been a concern that\u2019s been addressed several times before, with increasing degrees of success using strong magnets to keep the plasma from melting its immediate surroundings. Creating plasma that\u2019s \u201cself-heating,\u201d however, is an entirely different pursuit\u2014and the research team at LLNL may have given us our biggest step yet towards cracking the plasma code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;A burning plasma is when heating from the fusion reactions becomes the dominant source of heating in the plasma, more than required to initiate or jump-start the fusion,&#8221; said Annie Kritcher, co-author of both papers and LLNL physicist, to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/burning-hydrogen-plasma-record-breaking-fusion-experiment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">LiveScience<\/a>. (Kritcher is the lead author of the paper published in <em>Nature Physics<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kritcher continued in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.llnl.gov\/news\/nature-paper-describes-target-and-laser-designs-achieved-burning-plasma-lawrence-livermore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the LLNL press release<\/a>: \u201cIn these experiments, we achieved, for the first time in any fusion research facility, a burning plasma state where more fusion energy is emitted from the fuel than was required to initiate the fusion reactions or the amount of work done on the fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img  decoding=\"async\"  src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABAQMAAAAl21bKAAAAA1BMVEUAAP+KeNJXAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAAAlwSFlzAAAOxAAADsQBlSsOGwAAAApJREFUCNdjYAAAAAIAAeIhvDMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\"  alt=\"\"  class=\" pk-lazyload\"  data-pk-sizes=\"auto\"  data-pk-src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/-jU7DzYP9M3sq3Ixy0EHXV3rxVRxz5Zu-vs7_dbS8KDWPdDk8MpW-VFxLSC908uefIGYgjKn1IRaruVx5UZQr4rKawoi3gcCboPVl2Pq0WkbDZZiG9Lwv46kI6c8EZ01hwk5sDaE\" ><figcaption>The target chamber inside the National Ignition Facility contains features such as the target positioner above. (Lawrence Livermore National Security, 2008)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>To attain their major milestone, Kritcher and the team used their laser array to shoot kilojoules of energy into a fusion fuel pellet that\u2019s barely a millimeter (0.04 in) across containing some 200 \u00b5g (micrograms) of hydrogen that\u2019s rich in neutrons, including its <em>isotopes<\/em> like <em>deuterium<\/em> and <em>tritium<\/em>. It was enough to initiate fusion that lasted not even a second, yet was enough to generate energy output that\u2019s equivalent to 10% of all the energy the Sun throws at our planet every instant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In total, the fusion reaction generated some 10 quadrillion watts of power; what\u2019s striking, however, is that the plasma they created generated enough heat to overpower the heat injected into the pellet prior to the reaction\u2014a feedback process called \u201c<em>self-heating<\/em>.\u201d The LLNL team got to this remarkable result through clever redesigns and computational modeling that increased their overall efficiency, in effect \u201cincreasing the scale while maintaining high levels of plasma pressure,\u201d according to the same LLNL press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kritcher continued: \u201cWe learned where we could and could not trust the modeling and when to rely on semi-empirical models. We also found that keeping the driver pressure up longer relative to the time it takes the target to \u2018implode\u2019 was important for maintaining a high plasma pressure. Without this pressure, and enough energy coupled to the hot dense plasma, we would not reach the extreme conditions required for significant fusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img  decoding=\"async\"  src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABAQMAAAAl21bKAAAAA1BMVEUAAP+KeNJXAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAAAlwSFlzAAAOxAAADsQBlSsOGwAAAApJREFUCNdjYAAAAAIAAeIhvDMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\"  alt=\"\"  class=\" pk-lazyload\"  data-pk-sizes=\"auto\"  data-pk-src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/4h1M-AQYjNb2U-nWGAKMvtUh81QQGxJknQ69RyvOtH8VCNJmPx6al9Gw41tdmD8uYOYyyzjOFJsEj_pe9b8FzCahM3ty7u0-CXXmK8WkKckMxs5YPI53B0dpLaLh3HFTUgWR-u6B\" ><figcaption>The National Ignition Facility uses technology known as preamplifiers, pictured above, to increase the energy of the lasers that they use to shoot the fusion fuel pellet placed inside the target chamber. (Jemison\/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2012)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The attainment of this self-heating plasma marks the newest milestone for the laboratory in its long quest for nuclear fusion power. Kritcher referred to the moment as a \u201cvery exciting time for fusion research,\u201d citing even more improvements to the facility\u2019s instruments and technologies due in part to the results obtained from their remarkable experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team now refers to their self-heating plasma work a \u201cbasecamp\u201d for future fusion experiments. According to Kritcher, the team hopes to use their new findings to explore more in the field of nuclear fusion \u201cthrough a variety of ideas to increase fuel compression and energy coupling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"references\">References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Kritcher, A. L., Young, C. V., Robey, H. F., Weber, C. R., Zylstra, A. B., Hurricane, O. A., Callahan, D. A., Ralph, J. E., Ross, J. S., Baker, K. L., Casey, D. T., Clark, D. S., D\u00f6ppner, T., Divol, L., Hohenberger, M., Hopkins, L. B., Le Pape, S., Meezan, N. B., Pak, A., \u2026 Zimmerman, G. B. (2022). Design of inertial fusion implosions reaching the burning plasma regime. <em>Nature Physics<\/em>, 1\u20138. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41567-021-01485-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41567-021-01485-9<\/a><\/li><li>Lavars, N. (2022, January 27). <em>Nuclear fusion milestone creates \u2018burning plasma\u2019 for the first time<\/em>. New Atlas. <a href=\"https:\/\/newatlas.com\/energy\/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-burning-plasma-first-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/newatlas.com\/energy\/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-burning-plasma-first-time\/<\/a><\/li><li>Metcalfe, T. (2022, January 26). <em>\u2018Burning\u2019 hydrogen plasma in the world\u2019s largest laser sets fusion records<\/em>. LiveScience. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/burning-hydrogen-plasma-record-breaking-fusion-experiment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/burning-hydrogen-plasma-record-breaking-fusion-experiment<\/a><\/li><li>Padilla, M. (2022, January 26). <em>Nature paper describes the target and laser designs that achieved a burning plasma at Lawrence Livermore<\/em>. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.llnl.gov\/news\/nature-paper-describes-target-and-laser-designs-achieved-burning-plasma-lawrence-livermore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.llnl.gov\/news\/nature-paper-describes-target-and-laser-designs-achieved-burning-plasma-lawrence-livermore<\/a><\/li><li>Zylstra, A. B., Hurricane, O. A., Callahan, D. A., Kritcher, A. L., Ralph, J. E., Robey, H. F., Ross, J. S., Young, C. V., Baker, K. L., Casey, D. T., D\u00f6ppner, T., Divol, L., Hohenberger, M., Le Pape, S., Pak, A., Patel, P. K., Tommasini, R., Ali, S. J., Amendt, P. A., \u2026 Zimmerman, G. B. (2022). Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion. <em>Nature<\/em>, <em>601<\/em>(7894), 542\u2013548. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-021-04281-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-021-04281-w<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Avid readers of Modern Sciences shouldn\u2019t be surprised at this point that we\u2019re covering yet another milestone in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17],"tags":[212],"class_list":{"0":"post-3780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-engineering","8":"category-math-and-the-sciences","9":"tag-nuclear-fusion","10":"cs-entry","11":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3782,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3780\/revisions\/3782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}