atom meet adam

Yesterday was the big announcement that a fusion experiment at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where the combining of deuterium and tritium using a laser trigger ignition was reported to have produced more power than what was put in; a first for a fusion experiment of any kind.

The ITER in France seems to be humming along, though it was delayed during the pandemic, and is now further delayed by supply chain issues that have affected numerous industries world wide. It is looking like preliminary experiments are to begin taking place in 2025 with the goal of reaching sustained plasma fusion in the 2030s.

The clean and abundant energy that a commercially provided fusion reactor could supply would have absolutely enormous effect on our civilization. All of the wars that concern fossil fuel resources would no longer serve a purpose. All of the fresh water scarcity issues we have will be able to be corrected by fusion powered desalination of ocean water. Even space travel could become more reasonable to cover the vast distances by using a fusion powered space ship which can scoop up the sparse hydrogen atoms that flutter around in space as fuel.

For the longest time nuclear fusion power has been perpetually two decades away; and now it does seem like we may have the beginning of it within the next two decades. At 18076 days old today I am very hopeful that I will get to see the commercialization of nuclear fusion power generation within my lifetime.