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Plasma physics

A promising advance in nuclear fusion

Nature volume 506, pages 302–303 (2014)Cite this article

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Experiments conducted at the US National Ignition Facility have cleared a hurdle on the road to nuclear fusion in the laboratory, encouraging fusion scientists around the world. See Letter p.343

Formidable challenges face the decades-long quest to achieve nuclear fusion — the power source of stars — in the laboratory. For a plasma to undergo self-heating nuclear fusion (ignition), it must be both hot and well confined. The facilities that hope to accomplish this goal are technological marvels, but are dauntingly expensive to build and operate. Setbacks abound as nature resists human attempts to control it, and technical hurdles lead to cost increases that threaten funding support. Thus, it is not surprising that fusion scientists throughout the world are cheering the exciting advances reported by Hurricane et al.1 on page 343 of this issue. For the first time, their laboratory fusion experiment achieved more energy from fusion reactions than had been invested in the fusion fuel. These results are still a long way from ignition, but they represent a significant step forward in fusion research.

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Figure 1: Deuterium–tritium fusion reaction.

References

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  1. Mark Herrmann is at the Pulsed Power Sciences Center, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, USA.,

    Mark Herrmann

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  1. Mark Herrmann
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Correspondence to Mark Herrmann.

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Herrmann, M. A promising advance in nuclear fusion. Nature 506, 302–303 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13057

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