The dream of igniting a self-sustained fusion reaction with high yields of energy, a feat likened to creating a miniature star on Earth, is getting closer to becoming reality, according to the authors of a new review article in the journal Physics of Plasmas.
In the early morning hours of August 13, Lawrence Livermore's National Ignition Facility (NIF) focused all 192 of its ultra-powerful laser beams on a tiny deuterium-tritium filled capsule. In the nanoseconds that followed, the capsule imploded and released a neutron yield of nearly 3×10¹⁵, approximately 8,000 joules of neutron energy — approximately three times NIF's previous neutron yield record for cryogenic implosions.
The Promise of Fusion
Clearly, we are living in the end of the fossil fuel age. One estimate is that fusion fuel could be made for as little as 25 cents per use and yield 50 to 100 times more energy than is needed to initiate the fusion reaction.
Will this brave, new world lead to energy abundance for all or a monopoly for a few? I would like to believe that this technology will be used to drive a new economy that is more sustainable and less exploitative than the oil economy of today. But I suspect that the level of technology needed to produce this power would enable a higher consolidation of wealth.
The Dark Side
I also wonder about the potential to weaponize fusion reactions. A pure fusion weapon would require no fissile material and would therefore be much easier to build in secret than existing weapons.
Pure fusion weapons offer the possibility of generating very small nuclear yields and the advantage of reduced collateral damage stemming from fallout because these weapons would not create the highly radioactive byproducts associated with fission-type weapons.
If I understand this idea, a pure fusion weapon would destroy living things without destroying the infrastructure or leaving radiation. How tempting for a new wave of colonization in areas of great instability worldwide, instant vacancy — ready for new owner.
Science fiction author Isaac Asimov said that "Such a neutron bomb or N bomb seems desirable to those who worry about property and hold life cheap."
So are we one step closer to Utopia or one step closer to Armageddon?