Could nuclear fusion — the 'holy grail' of nuclear power — be close at hand?

LIFE Fusion on Target for Ignition This Year

Posted by Ross Pomeroy at Thu, 23 Feb 2012
Newton Blog

Controlled nuclear fusion with net energy gain is on schedule to occur later this year at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California.

That was the message from NIF's director for laser fusion energy, Mike Dunne, who spoke at a Photonics West 2012 plenary talk in January. Optics.org covered the event:

"We are now in a position to say with some confidence that ignition will happen in the next 6-18 months," stated [Dunne], adding that he felt personally that the breakthrough was likely to happen in around nine months.

The vehicle of what would be a monumental step forward for energy production is called Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (with the awesome acronym "LIFE"). LIFE functions by firing a powerful laser at a small, centimeter scale chamber. The laser generates massive pressures within the chamber and creates temperatures of over 4 million degrees Celsius. Miniscule deuterium-tritium fuel pellets will be rapidly inserted into the chamber, and the aforementioned conditions will induce the deuterium and tritium to fuse together, creating helium, a free neutron, and massive amounts of energy.

(Continued here.)