Eco Factor: Laser fusion facility to produce more energy than it consumes.
It might look as if its defying the energy laws of physics, but scientists at the National Ignition Facility have got it all set up for the world’s first machine, powered by the world’s largest lasers to produce more energy that it consumes. The $3.5 billion NIF rests in a 10-story building covering an area of more three football fields in California, and once started it will harness the power of lasers to turn tiny pellets of hydrogen into thermonuclear energy.
If all goes according to the plans, the machine would become the first in the world to generate more energy that it actually consumes and herald a new era of technology which would end the world’s energy problems by paving the way for commercial laser fusion power stations. The facility, which almost took a decade and a half to complete, could provide the world with limitless energy.
The technology is based on the use of the world’s most powerful laser to create 192 separate beams of light that will be directed at a bead of frozen hydrogen pellets. These pellets, measuring just 2mm in diameter and costing around $40,000 each, would burst violently on impact with the laser beams. This collision would crunch the fuel pellet and generate temperatures of around 100,000,000C, mimicking extreme conditions that are found only in the core of stars. Hydrogen atoms would then fuse together producing helium and vast amounts of energy.
The machine would work at full power over the next 12 months and experiments would be carried until 2040. For now the facility can only fire the laser beam a couple of times a day, which would have to be increased to 10 times a second for continuous energy generation, which could eventually give the energy deprived world not just a ray but a laser beam of hope.
[Credit is given to Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Department of Energy under whose auspices this work was performed]
Via: Guardian
