Financial Times claim that government scientists at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have achieved a significant breakthrough in the pursuit of fusion technology.

A world first net energy gain.

For fusion noobs, theoretically fusion could be an extremely low cost and low environmental impact source of energy.

Previously scientists have been able to achieve fusion but only by expending a lot of energy and without achieving an energy profit.

Preliminary results suggest a 20% gain, though the amount of energy produced in this experiment was much higher than expected and damaged diagnostic equipment.

If everything checks out then an official announcement is expected tomorrow.

Followup

Was there a breakthrough?

Yes.

Though it's not precisely as originally described.

A scientific but not engineering gain was achieved.

Approximately 300 million megajoules of energy were used to fire extremely inefficient 1990's laser technology which input 2 megajoules of energy for the experiment, and returned 3 megajoules.

It's a significant result and possibly even more remarkable given the outdated equipment they're working with.

But the more impressive engineering gain milestone may be reached by other government laboratories or private industry.

[ Main Image: Solar flares. Credit: NASA via National Ignition Facility. ]

References

Bush, E. and Lederman, J. (December 14, 2022). We have 'ignition': Fusion breakthrough draws energy gain. NBC News.

National Ignition Facility & Photon Science. Pursuing Fusion Ignition. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (viewed December 13, 2022)

Wilson, Tom (December 11, 2022). US scientists boost clean power hopes with fusion energy breakthrough. Financial Times.