A REBOOT FOR CIVILIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

 

A major scientific achievement that could change civilization as we know it has just occurred; but has been lost in the noise of political unrest, holiday mania, and air travel disruption.

It has happened in December 2022 the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory using lasers successfully created a controlled thermonuclear fusion. 

We have been able to produce nuclear fusion since the mid-1940s with the advent of the Hydrogen bomb.  What we haven’t been able to do was control the fusion process.

   

Fusion results when you bring two elements together under extreme pressure and temperature and form a new element releasing energy in the process.

Example:

Protons have a like charge – let’s call it a positive charge – they repel each other.

By increasing the temperature and pressure you can force those two protons together; finally to a point where a new force (the strong nuclear force) overcomes the repelling forces and combines the two protons into a new element nucleus.  

This new nucleus has less mass than the sum of the original mass of the two protons.  

The difference of that mass is released as energy.

Under controlled conditions the explosion that comes out also creates an implosion toward the center; under high temperature and pressure, the Lawrence Livermore lab was able to sustain the explosion – energy release. 

After the successfully controlled fusion, the Laboratory found that energy output was fifty percent higher than the energy imputed from the lasers: more energy out than was put in.

 

The conclusion to this is that fusion is an energy source that could produce electricity cheaper than oil, coal, or gas and with a zero carbon footprint.  Portable fusion sources could eventually replace batteries in electric vehicles.

Wars are fought and countries are held hostage over fossil fuel energy sources.  

Controlled thermos nuclear fusion could be a reboot for the environment and the human race. 

the Ol’Buzzard