Early December, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers claimed to have reached a global milestone: creating more energy through a fusion reaction compared to the amount inputted.
According to Futurism, such a feat has been dubbed holy grail when it comes to fusion power. It may be a probable breakthrough in coming up with practical energy within power plants.
However, several experts have been arguing that this breakthrough is quite late. What makes things worse is that this technology could lead to the production of nuclear weapons that are even more deadly and catastrophic.
ALSO READ: Charged Atoms in Nuclear Fusion Experiment Behave Oddly, Unexpected by Scientists Forbes notes how this stepping-stone may be revolutionary, it is probably decades away from happening. This means that it could arrive too late to handle the climate change issues that the world is currently facing. According to Futurism, freelance journalist Chris Cragg expressed agreement that the development of such reactors may take significant amounts of time. Cragg even mentions that such a power station may not start running before Cragg's children reach the age of 70. This is considering how it has taken around 60 years and large quantities of resources to reach the current point. According to Forbes, over many decades, scientists have eyed nuclear fusion as a probably source of green energy that is remarkably abundant. Because of the absence of carbon emission, such type of energy is considered green, even if waste still gets produced out of it. Such wastes are quite manageable, however, and have significantly lower danger compared to the wastes generated from fission. Such energy sources offer an infinite supply because of the amount of fuel used which is capable of granting energy supplies for up to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years. According to renewable energy specialist Mark Diesendorf, systems of laser fusion (which were used by the Livermore researchers) can be used for the production of neurons that have the capacity to make nuclear explosives uranium-233, uranium-235, and plutonium-239. This means that such reactors of the future can give the military new methodologies of coming up with raw materials for nuclear explosives. This assumption is not far-off, considering how the said lab has a history of working on such types of weapons. In fact, Futurism notes how this facility was established in 1952 as a response to the atomic bomb detonation of the Soviet Union way back in 1949. Nevertheless, the clock continues to tick and the climate crisis presses on. It has yet to be seen whether nuclear fusion will contribute to the solution of the pressing climate crisis. With or without such breakthroughs, scientists and researchers still have so much to prove. RELATED ARTICLE: National Ignition Facility Confirmed Successful First Case of Nuclear Fusion Power in the Lab After It Released a Large Amount of Energy Check out more news and information on Technology and Innovation in Science Times. Is Nuclear Fusion Technology Too Late?
New Nuclear Fusion Tech May Dangerously Facilitate Creation of Nuclear Weapons
Climate Change Presses On
