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 * Scientists replicated their breakthrough December 2022 nuclear fusion
   experiment.
 * But this time, they produced even more energy from the experiment than the
   first time.
 * These experiments are history in the making, bringing us one step closer to a
   fusion-powered future.

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1 of 49 Photos in Gallery©Michael Abramson/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty
Images/Getty Images


WHAT HAPPENED THE DAY WHEN ONE OF THE WORST NUCLEAR DISASTERS IN US HISTORY TOOK
PLACE AT THREE MILE ISLAND

 * On March 28, 1979, almost a decade before the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a
   nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island experienced a partial meltdown. The
   event is now considered one of the worst nuclear disasters in US history.
 * On that day, a combination of malfunctions and human error unleashed
   radioactive gases into the environment around the Three Mile Island nuclear
   power plant in Pennsylvania.
 * The Three Mile Island partial meltdown was not as damaging as the nuclear
   crises at Chernobyl or Fukushima: Nobody died because of the accident, but 2
   million people were exposed to small amounts of radiation, and 140,000 people
   evacuated the area.
 * The plant's owner, Exelon Corporation, closed Three Mile Island on September
   20, 2019, due to financial struggles.

Correction: May 19, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated Three Mile
Island as the worst nuclear disaster in US history. However, it's come to our
awareness that the Church Rock Nuclear Disaster was equally devastating.
Therefore, we've corrected this post to describe Three Mile Island as one of the
worst nuclear disasters in US history, but not the worst.

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In a second successful experiment, US scientists say they produced a nuclear
fusion reaction that yields more energy than they put into it.



After decades of trying, this is only the second time in history scientists have
achieved such a feat, and it could usher in a future age of cleaner, sustainable
energy, unlike anything we've ever seen.


WHY NUCLEAR FUSION IS SO IMPORTANT FOR GLOBAL ENERGY NEEDS

We see the colossal power of nuclear fusion in action every day — the sun.

At the sun's core, immense heat and gravity cause the fusion of hydrogen into
helium, generating enough energy per hour to power 2,880 trillion light bulbs
for a lifetime, per Solar Reviews.

Creating that same force that powers the sun here on Earth is a challenge, but
worth the effort if we're going to solve the ongoing global energy crisis.

Experts expect global electricity consumption to continue to grow through 2050,
according to the International Energy Agency. Increasing oil prices and attempts
to curb greenhouse gas emissions are driving demand for renewable and greener
energy.

Fusion can provide both.

Fusion generates between 20 million to 100 million times more energy per
kilogram of fuel compared to fossil fuels. About a gram of fuel for nuclear
fusion is the equivalent of 2,400 gallons of oil, according to the Department of
Energy.

The sources of fuel for nuclear fusion, seawater and lithium, are also abundant
and produce carbon-free energy. Meaning that unlike fossil fuels, nuclear fusion
doesn't contribute to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that are driving
climate change.

"This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero
carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society," Secretary of Energy
Jennifer Granholm said after the December 2022 breakthrough experiment.


2 MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS IN NUCLEAR FUSION




In December 2022, US scientists generated 3.15 megajoules of energy from a
nuclear fusion experiment — 1.1 megajoules more than the 2.05 megajoules used to
power the reaction.

It was a major breakthrough and the first time a fusion experiment had ever
generated an energy surplus. But the breakthrough was recently usurped. The most
recent reaction performed better than the original, according to early reports.

Both experiments took place at the National Ignition Facility, part of the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.




The early results from the July 30 experiment showed an output greater than 3.5
megajoules, the Financial Times reported.



That's almost 1 kilowatt hour. To put that in perspective, many Energy Star
clothes washers use about 100 kWh each year, so 1 kWh is enough to power one of
those washers for about three loads.

The experiment's success, however, requires additional analysis before the
scientists are ready to release more details and publish their results in a
peer-reviewed scientific journal.

"As is our standard practice, we plan on reporting those results at upcoming
scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed publications," Paul Rhien, a public
rep with the laboratory, said in an emailed statement.


WHY NUCLEAR FUSION BEATS NUCLEAR FISSION

Current nuclear power plants use fission to make energy. Unlike fusion, which
joins atoms together to generate energy, fission splits atoms apart.

Fission is actually what powers atomic bombs, which were first developed out of
the Manhattan Project run by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Eventually, scientists
learned to harness fission in reactors to generate energy.



For some, the ultimate goal, however, is not fission, but fusion reactors.

Both fusion and fission release large amounts of energy. But joining two
hydrogen nuclei to form helium doesn't generate the same long-lived nuclear
waste products that breaking apart uranium and plutonium does.

While fission creates a chain reaction, nuclear fusion reactors of the future
would not, avoiding the risk of a meltdown.

Fusion can also create four times as much energy as fission, according to the
International Atomic Energy Agency.


SCIENTISTS STILL HAVE A FEW CHALLENGES AHEAD BEFORE THE NUCLEAR FUSION
REVOLUTION

While NIF seems to be on its way to repeatedly generating extra energy from its
nuclear experiments, there are several obstacles still ahead before the world
runs on fusion reactors, experts have said.

To start, the NIF method requires radioactive materials. It uses a tiny capsule
of deuterium and tritium, two hydrogen isotopes, and 192 lasers. Tritium is
radioactive, and Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research, has argued that many of its health effects are
under-studied.

Moreover, Daniel Jassby, a physicist formerly with the Princeton Plasma Physics
Laboratory, wrote in 2017 that fusion reactors would still generate radioactive
material that would have to be buried. The waste's level of radioactivity would
be lower, but there would be more of it, Jassby wrote.

It also took a large amount of energy to power the NIF's lasers, a problem that
scientists need to solve before scaling up the process to provide electricity to
a grid. The yield would have to be much higher and the operation much quicker,
according to a recent report in Energy Policy.

Even with the new breakthroughs, it could take decades for the technology to be
competitive with current methods of energy production. But it is another
promising step to a clean energy future.




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Aug. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Energy will announce $1.2 billion in
climate funding Friday to build two commercial-scale direct air capture
facilities in Texas and Louisiana that will help reduce the concentration of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The initiative is being funded through President Joe Biden's Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law and is part of the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs program,
which aims to build a national network of carbon removal sites to mitigate the
escalating climate crisis.

The funding for the project stands to become the world's largest-ever investment
in engineered carbon removal, with each new hub capable of clearing more than
250 times more carbon dioxide from the air than the largest capture facility in
operation today, the Energy Department said in a statement.

The goal of direct air capture is twofold -- to remove perpetual carbon dioxide
pollution from the atmosphere and extract the everyday emissions from human
activities like transportation, industry, manufacturing and waste management, as
well as the CO2 produced by wildfires.

"Cutting back on our carbon emissions alone won't reverse the growing impacts of
climate change; we also need to remove the CO2 that we've already put in the
atmosphere -- which nearly every climate model makes clear is essential to
achieving a net-zero global economy by 2050," said Energy Secretary Jennifer
Granholm.




In total, the new facilities are expected to rid the air of more than 2 million
metric tons of CO2 emissions each year -- which is equal to the amount of
contaminants put out by 445,00 gas-powered vehicles, the agency said.



Biden's net-zero emissions plan, however, is far more ambitious -- calling for
between 400 million and 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2 to be removed from the
atmosphere and captured from emissions sources annually by 2050.

The rising hubs in Calcasieu Parish, La., and Kleberg County, Texas, will
kickstart the effort while fostering labor and community growth as the
administration seeks increased solutions to extreme weather events that continue
to rack the country each year due to climate change.

"Their development will help inform future public and private sector investments
and jumpstart a new industry critical to addressing the climate crisis on a
global scale," the Energy Department stated. "DOE is dedicated to ensuring that
the selected Regional DAC Hubs projects deliver community benefits and avoid
harm in those communities while also advancing the development of carbon
capture, transport, and storage systems."

The direct air capture process separates carbon from oxygen, and thus reduces
CO2 in the atmosphere. The trapped CO2 can then be safely stored underground or
converted into useful carbon products like concrete, which would prevent its
release back into the air.

Carbon dioxide removal technology is critical to curtailing climate change and
could help the United States become more competitive in the global economy of
the future, the agency said.

The construction and ongoing maintenance of the facilities will create nearly
5,000 new jobs in Texas and Louisiana, the agency said.

A recent report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change blamed
carbon dioxide pollution for warming the planet and its oceans continuously for
more than half a century while damaging public health and ecosystems worldwide.




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