All about Nuclear Fusion Ignition: Process, benefits and future

Nuclear Fusion Reaction is recently in news because Lawrence Livemore National library in California announced an experiment that was carried out in the National Ignition Facility. It made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion research. 

Know all about this research in the article written below. 

Tests Performed: 

The scientists at the US department of energy's flagship laser facility created a new record this time breaking the previous record set by them. 

The scientists generated more than 10 quadrillion watts of fusion power for a fraction of a second. It is roughly 700 times the generating capacity of the entire US electrical grid at any time. 

This revived the hope of the long troubled National Ignition Facility attaining its goal to produce more energy than its consumption in a sustained fusion reaction. 

This facility is housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and amounts to 3.5 billion US dollars. The facility was not designed to serve as a power plant prototype but to probe fusion reactions at the heart of thermonuclear weapons. 

The United States had banned underground nuclear testing at the end of the Cold War in 1992. So the energy department proposed the NIF as a part of a larger science based Stockpile Stewardship Program. It was designed to test the reliability of the nuclear weapons without their detonation. 

Test Results: 

Result: The reactions released positively charged particles called alpha particles which in turn heated the surrounding plasma. 

Plasma: At high temperatures, electrons are ripped from atom's nuclei and become a plasma or an ionised state of matter. Plasma is also known as the fourth state of matter. 

Ignition amplified the energy output from nuclear fusion reactions and could help in providing clean energy for the future. 

What is Nuclear Fusion?

It is defined as a combination of various small nuclei into one large nucleus. The process results in subsequent release of large amounts of energy. The process powers the sun. It harnesses fusion energy which results in an unlimited amount of renewable energy. 

This type of energy is the most easily achievable energy on Earth which can be obtained by combining just two isotopes of Hydrogen: Deuterium and Tritium.  

The Process and Advantages over Fission

For a nuclear fusion reaction, two nuclei must be brought closer so that the nuclear forces become active and they cause the two of the nuclei to stick together. 

The nuclear forces are small distance forces which need to act against the electrostatic forces (positively charged nuclei repel one another).

Nuclear fusion's main purpose is to produce electricity. It can provide sage, clean energy for many generations to come. It is also better as considered by many against fission reactors. 

The Fusion process uses less fuel than the fission process.

Fusion process avoids uncontrolled release of energy and makes less radiation than the natural background we live in.

This kind of energy reaction also does not produce high level nuclear wastes such as fission counterparts. Thus there is no need to dispose of the waste as well. 

Even if generated the waste from fusion reaction would not be useful in producing weapon grade nuclear materials as is produced in fission reactors. 

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