:strip_icc()/s01.video.glbimg.com/x720/10245140.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California, said this Wednesday (26) that they managed to generate, for the first time, energy from Nuclear fusion — an advance studied for decades, now even more necessary in the face of the climate crisis.
–
nuclear fusion requires a large amount of heat and pressure to unite the nucleus of hydrogen atoms and thus produce helium. It is this process that causes the sun to release more energy in an extreme way.
–
To generate this energy, the scientists directed 192 laser beams at a 2 millimeter-diameter target that contained hydrogen.
–
–
–
California scientists manage to generate energy from nuclear fusion for the first time — Photo: Jornal da Globo/Reproduction
– –
Alex Zylstra, an experimental physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, says that they created a system where the plasma, used as fuel, is heating itself. In the past, they always had to provide external heat, but now, the nuclear fusion they created is doing the work for them.
–
The energy from nuclear fusion is completely different from nuclear power plants, which create energy from nuclear fission, that is, the splitting of atoms. The mills produce huge amounts of radioactive trash, with risks of accidents, such as that of Chernobyl, in Ukraine, in 1986. Nuclear fusion, however, does not create radioactive waste and uses more efficient and less dangerous inputs.
–
- Ukraine marks 35th anniversary of Chernobyl disaster
- ‘Children of Chernobyl’: what first study says of descendants of those affected by the nuclear accident
–
If the technology continues to develop, she will be able to create unlimited electricity and with zero carbon emissions. Clean and cheap energy that can help reverse the effects of climate change and global warming.
–
–
Nuclear fusion requires a great deal of heat and pressure to unite the nuclei of hydrogen atoms and thus produce helium. — Photo: JG/Reproduction
– –
Despite the good news, scientists estimate that it is still decades away before nuclear fusion can be used to power homes, cars or planes, for example.
–
To achieve nuclear fusion, they used ten times more energy than they could produce with it, generating the equivalent of nine batteries.
–
However, Alex says that the next step is to show that it is possible to generate more energy with nuclear fusion than is used to make the process work. And that, yes, this is going to be the most important milestone to save the world.
– –
