Scientists Say Their Giant Laser Has Produced Nuclear Fusion : The Two-Way. Hide captionThe National Ignition Facility's 192 laser beams focus onto a tiny target.
The National Ignition Facility's 192 laser beams focus onto a tiny target. Researchers at a laboratory in California say they've had a breakthrough in producing fusion reactions with a giant laser. The success comes after years of struggling to get the laser to work and is another step in the decades-long quest for fusion energy. Omar Hurricane, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, says that for the first time, they've produced significant amounts of fusion by zapping a target with their laser.
"We've gotten more energy out of the fusion fuel than we put into the fusion fuel," he says. High-Powered Lasers Deliver Fusion Energy Breakthrough. Scientists in California make landmark advance towards unlimited fusion energy. By ReutersWednesday, February 12, 2014 13:57 EDT By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. scientists announced on Wednesday an important milestone in the costly, decades-old quest to develop fusion energy, which, if harnessed successfully, promises a nearly inexhaustible energy source for future generations.
For the first time, experiments have produced more energy from fusion reactions than the amount of energy put into the fusion fuel, scientists at the federally funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said. The researchers, led by physicist Omar Hurricane, described the achievement as important but said much more work is needed before fusion can become a viable energy source.