February 12, 2014
High-Powered Lasers Deliver Fusion Energy Breakthrough (David Biello, 2/12/14, Scientific American)
The power of the sun has edged a little closer to Earth. Under x-ray assault, the rapid implosion of a plastic shell onto icy isotopes of hydrogen has produced fusion and, for the first time, 170 micrograms of this superheated fusion fuel released more energy than it absorbed. Experimental shots of the 192 lasers at the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have reproduced such fusion at least four times since September 2013.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 12, 2014 7:14 PM