One giant leap for clean energy

Alaser-initiated experiment at the United States National Ignition Facility, based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, made a significant breakthrough on 8 August in reproducing the power source of the stars, smashing its own 2018 record for energy released from nuclear fusion reactions 23 times over.

The nuclear energy that was released was equal to 70% of the laser energy used to create the reaction. A pulse of light, focused to tiny spots within a vacuum chamber, triggered the collapse of a capsule of fuel from roughly the size of the pupil in your eye to the diameter of a human hair. This implosion created the extreme conditions of temperature and pressure needed for atoms of hydrogen to combine