Nuclear Fusion: Inside the breakthrough that could change our world | 60 Minutes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
- On December 5th, scientists at the National Ignition Facility reached a breakthrough in nuclear fusion by producing a reaction with an energy gain. It could be a step toward a world in the distant future where fusion is a source of power.
#60Minutes #News #NuclearFusion
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Not to overstate the significance of this achievement since there are many substantial hurdles to overcome before this is anywhere near viable for commercial power production, but I still feel like I’m seeing a glimpse into the earliest stages of a technology that will one day change the world. Being in my mid 30s currently I’m hopeful it will happen in my lifetime.
I just turned 38. Maybe we'll see a revolutionary new energy platform in our lives. This was monumental.
They were right when they compared it to the Wright bros. flight.
I'm 25 and I know all the tech we dream of we'll have. Living to 200 is happening in my life time and I can't wait.
@@kangtheconqueror9545 Its a ponzi, I do not beleve you can run it small scale like this.
Commercial production controlled or free to use by 1 country or every country?
My Grandpa Worked on the Lasers in the Livermore Labs for 30 years, he retired 10 years ago and died 3 years ago. If he was still here he would have been elated to see everything him and his team's work did to help get us to the first step to a great future for humanity.
Congratulations to your grandpa and his accomplishments. Your story reminds me of the architects of the renaissance era that never got to see their buildings finished. Your grandfather was truly a renaissance man.
Dude didn’t This facility become operational in 2009…
Did he travel to Cambodia before? Shot in the dark but I did meet a retired man there in the past that worked there...
@@rojobackape1669 officially
they already had different better ways for nuke power but those way's didn't make nuclear bombs. That's why they picked the way they did. That's why Iran wants nuclear power to make bombs >.>
My UCLA Physics class took a field trip here 25 years ago. They were working on this project even back then. I don't remember much about college but I remember that trip and the lab - what an amazing treat for our class.
Most people who get to see it are awestruck, including the crew of 60 Minutes. Few bother raising highly critical questions afterwards.
NIF was preceded by two previous large laser fusion facilities that were expected to work out most of the kinks in the system. When they were followed by NIF it was assumed that NIF would achieve a break-even fusion reaction soon after it started full operation. It achieved full function in 2009 and was given until 2012 to reach its namesake goal of 'ignition.' It failed by a wide margin but funding continued since is has always been primarily funded as a thermonuclear (H-bomb) research tool. It took another decade to finally reach that goal which is what this announcement was about. It still remains a nuclear weapon research tool and the announced experiment also included some nuclear weapons prompt radiation research targets.
Did you get a lollipop too!!!???
@@vernonbrechin4207 Good data in your answer. I didn't know it was research for H-bomb, but I already knew that 90% or 95% of the allotted time for experiments was for "military research" and not "new type of energy" research. I don't care if it really is for H-bomb, just knowing that almost everything they do there is military research (that being said by one of the heads of the project) gives VERY LITTLE HOPE for a "energy for mankind" kind of result. I would say: please cut the propaganda... LLNL and NIF are non-important for the future of energy. NIF is immensely over-hyped.
@@burdeninmyhand - I'm glad you've seen some of the deception in the claims. Large numbers of fusion energy fans have immersed themselves in the presentations they prefer to hear while rejecting all critical assessments. They immerse themselves in eco-chambers with the intent of reinforcing what they want to believe in. Not also how the primary reporting on this formal presentation was extremely one sided with so called journalistic 'balance' provided by other expert fans of nuclear fusion energy.
I urge readers to search for the following titles to learn more about critical reviews of the promotional hype.
New Energy Times (NewEnergyTimes - News)
False Foundations For Nuclear Fusion (TH-cam)
I should point out that in the U.S. the nuclear weapons are on loan to the military agencies. The development, testing, manufacture and storage is the responsibility of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) which is a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). My understanding is that almost all NIF funding is derived from the nuclear weapons portion of the Congressional budget. The announced experiment included a test target to test nuclear weapon irradiation effects.
@@vernonbrechin4207 To summarize: what "they" achieved with that propaganda is almost like the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend, they got (almost) everyone hypnotized, even the "ecologists" are applauding the results at the NIF, while the truth there is Experiments for Military Purposes. But what can we do? You don't have much to worry about, this is part of the history of humanity, 90% (idiots) living hypnotized.
“The power of the sun. In the palm of my hand.”
-Otto Octavius
Gotta say, I'm surprised this was actually a pretty good segment. Most every news segment I saw about this experiment covered it with such blind fervor, almost no one pointed out its shortcomings
... and there are quite a few more shortcomings not mentioned here. The hurdles yet to jump are many and very VERY high. This was, unfortunately, not like the Wright brothers' first short flight. It was more akin to their first proof that a wing structure can provide lift, before reducing its weight, before developing an aircraft design, before finding a motor and mounting it etc etc.
Look up Daniel Jassby. He worked at PPPL for 25 years and retired. After that, since he didn't have to worry about being fired, he unleashed his thoughts on fusion and they were not pretty. Every problem he mentions are insurmountable but there is no time for the current scientific community to listen to negativity. Fusion is a fact and the money must keep flowing. Unfortunately, it is all for nothing.
It's so much of a game changer that it can lead humanity to a utopian future of abundance. Not with greedy people in power though unfortunately.
@@Muzick "[...] it can lead humanity to a utopian future of abundance." Ummm.. No. This is still 100+ years off and it will do nothing to stop differences in ability between people.
It's short comings are they don't have immense Gravity to hold it together or the mass needed to keep it going. Too much nonsensical work has to go into what the Sun does for FREE. Math is math and reality is what it is.
This laboratory toy or anything like it of any size, will simply NEVER power the Grid. Or realy anything.
It is and will always be a very cool lab experiment that will FOREVER be 30 years away from a magical breakthrough.
It’s hard to explain what a game changer the abundance of cheap, clean energy will be. Congratulations to everyone who dedicated their careers to working on this
It won't be cheap, not when greedy people run the world.
it would be even more of a game changer if people went out of ther way to care for the environment.
endless energy encourages endless consumption, that won't work on a finite planet
Blatantly ridiculously expensive and SO far from practicle it reaffirms the old adage of the distant future and always will be.
@@jimmywrangles yes... and it will segregate the poor from the Roch even further.
Someone will turn it into a weapon unfortunately.
I never forgot when my high school AP Physics class booked us a field trip to go see an experimental fusion reactor back in '98. Way better than the continuous trips to Disneyland you usually got in Southern California at the time.
Fusion within a decade has been the goal for 60 years.
"The power of the sun in the palm of my hand" - Otto Octavius, 2004
“From a machine, a star is born” is so deep.
Yeah. Tell that to our computer overlords after they sell you as a house pet!
to be so vein as to compare our meager achievements to the splendor of the stars. Man is so immature
No. Just no. Fusion smusion. Fiddlesticks jabberwacky is what it is.
From a thermos flask like bottle a star in something marvelous. A star in a jar
Well we are all made of star dust.
6:36 That line, as well as the little exhale that someone has before bursting into laughter is precious. No one has ever said that sentence in that tone before I bet.
Every day I feel like we're more and more living in a sci-fi movie.
Living a fantasy life
It is sci Fi it's only laboratory
Years ago, I took a course on energy engineering as part of my degree. There was only a brief chapter on fusion energy, and how unlikely it was. I never thought they'd actually make this breakthrough in my lifetime. Amazing. Edit: FFS, people. Enough with the needless nitpicking and bickering. Of course I know this is far from viable. The fact they've actually made progress and reached this point is what's impressive. That's the entire point of this video. Seriously, I didn't think I needed to explain something that obvious. I swear, it's like some people are just waiting to type some variation of, "well, actually" at any opportunity and waste time arguing over nothing.
When I took astronomy at my university in the mid 90s, I still remember my professor telling us how no exoplanets had been discovered and all the reasons why it was unlikely to happen.
A few years later the first exoplanets were discovered.
Science marches on...
@Jerry Joffer I did, actually. When I was younger, I thought it'd be from nukes. After studying Environmental Science, now it's climate change.
@@ZagnutBar Yup. I remember going to the library as a kid and borrowing the brand new book that showed the photos taken by Voyager 1 and 2. It seemed like the coolest thing ever back then.
@Polymathically I lik3 how the goal post always changes...global warming, now to climate change...how long until the next marketing change?
@Jerry Joffer Who said it wouldn’t
Shout out to Dr. Octavius. What you had achieved way back in 2004, the world seems to be catching up now..
Your legacy and contribution to Science will always be remembered.
May your soul rest in peace.. and may you come back again in Spider-man 4
He got bars!! “….meet the team that brought star power down to earth.”🔥🔥
One thing on the efficiency of the lasers. They were originally designed for multiple fields of experiments, namely weapons development. And they're something like 30 years old on top of that. It's all a matter of money to develop and pay for modern equipment, but now we've demonstrated there's a reason to fund it
Oh, interesting that mention weapons development… this here is also part of weapons development. "Clean" energy is just a nice "side-effect" (it's mostly a publicity spin).
"It's not a science problem anymore - it's an engineering problem" - Accurate description.
Science is painful, takes unseen amount of effort... But engineering can be exponential.
The answer might be an engineer who thinks outside the box
I Wonder what Elon's thoughts are on it ? He's solving Space issues and more with Science & Engineering .
@@DeadShred9 you cant be serious
That was deep
@@DeadShred9 if he got involved we’d probably have iron man suits built by now lol.
Our special needs daughter, who had a nickname of Star Girl, died on December 5th… The day they brought star power to earth… I know, it only means something to me, but thought I’d share anyway
I was a pediatric nurse for a long time. Saw kids die of cancer, etc. I don't believe in coincidences. I love ur story and how much it means to u!
I am sorry for your loss
I understand that the goal of fusion energy is always 40 years away. I am also elated to learn the breakthrough.
So in the final month of 2022 we achieved fusion! Wow sounds like beginning credits of a Star Trek movie where they indicate the first breakthrough that led to the warp engine. In this case the fusion engine. Nice!
It is awesome to see 60 Minutes still producing quality content even in new age media. I watch a lot of channels that have covered this but I haven't had the pleasure to see it presented through this lense. This vid is definitely a keeper.
You should check out 60 MINUTES Australia, they're not activists, they're TRULY journalists!!!
60 minutes just had paul ehrlich on. Don't give them too much credit
They are out of date and have expired their shelf life years ago, like Congress and Senate.
After investigating the experiment, and finding out the results were all questionable due to failed instrument listings. Better keep this one in the toilet.
Dyson sphere with paper thin solar pannels is much more efficient than this
It's amazing how big that place is considering how small the final area of ignition point is.
The Ignition isn’t the issues with nuclear reactions. It’s the energy that it produces. Basically, harnessing the energy of a nuclear bomb.
Lol you right, that huge place, 300 mega bejoules of laser energy, and you can heat 2 cups of coffee.
Yes, but when you compare it with the size of the apparatus that causes fusion in nature, it's infinitesimal.
@@axelmontalban6270 First off, it's not "nuclear reactions." We're talking about one kind of nuclear reaction here, fusion. Second, getting ignition to happen on a small scale in a carefully controlled manner IS the issue. That's why it's taken two decades and many billions of dollars to achieve it. Now we know it's possible, the next step is to make it practical, and that's a long way off. I don't expect it before 2050 either. Finally, harnessing the energy is incredibly easy. The energy it produces includes heat which will be used to boil water to spin steam turbines.
@@paulh2981 Oh ok so basically the opposite of what I said. The issue is the having a force denser than the gravitation of the sun that is strong enough to make the atoms fuse with each other. The energy and resources that is needed for the ignition is at the moment more than the energy that it will produce; it’s an inefficient source of energy at the moment. Guess we need to start harnessing gravity itself, if that is even possible.
Surprisingly good segment. The engineering that went into building the facility alone is extremely impressive.
And a complete waste of time and money.
@@Saxxin1 I couldn't agree more...the issue always has been the fuel they are using. Tritium, naturally occuring is extremely rare on Earth and only found in trace amounts in the atmosphere. It costs $30,000 per gram and some of these reactors need upwards of 200 Kgs...most people don't understand the entire process and are in awe when they see presentations like this.
@@Saxxin1 Pft, it's a drop in the bucket of other things that could be considered wasteful. A 3.5 billion dollar facility and some change for scientific breakthroughs is much more worthy and less worrisome than blowing tens and tens of billions on stupid wars to spread muh democracy.
@Joe Mama fusion energy is not the key because all the keys to fusion are broken. The problem is in like the Tokamak reactors with even a 1% of tritium lost in the blanket it will not be able to be replenished which means it can not be sustained especially with today's tritium prices. Using Helium 3 and Deuterium only produces more tritium that must be attempted to contain it which is extremely challenging being that it permeates metallic structures and one of the major issues of fission. The issues are rarely spoken of as there is only a finite amount of tritium on the planet and helium is on the shortage list. It's a complete waste of money.
So is the money. 👎🏻
Here on the other side of the country at the world's second highest energy fusion laser in Rochester NY, we can do about 8 or 10 shots per day, and do much of the underlying validation work for the more powerful and more expensive shots then taken on NIF. If you have a serious interest in lasers and nuclear fusion I have several old documentaries from the 70s and 80s on my channel which illustrate the very long and arduous path that it has taken for us to get to this point. After 10 years of failing to ignite its DT capsules when most scientists expected it to happen in the first year or two on NIF, it came as a huge shock to many here when it finally did happen over the past year. Keep in mind that even if this technique of laser inertial confinement fusion can't be turned into a new source of power, it is still an enormously important new tool in physics. The neutron fluxes that are achieved in a 3 megajoule shot like the one last month are absolutely stupendous, and exceed in brightness that of any other source available to scientists, and the temperatures and densities able to be reached in these ignited, burning capsules are found only at the cores of planets and large stars. This is literally a tool to bring exotic pieces of the high energy universe into the laboratory for the first time in history. Regardless of whether it ever powers the lights in your house, it is undoubtedly going to open up whole new areas of study in experimental physics and astronomy which until now were effectively unthinkable.
Great post - thank you.
something is happening with fusion did you see the other project with the plasma donught smasher, they gonna use elctromagnetics to do some induction instead of steam for electric generation
Thank you for this post. I was originally going to say something rude about how much money & materials are wasted in building this stuff, but it all makes sense now, so thank you for that! I will definitely check out your channel!... 👍🏻👍🏻
Yes great post,I'd be suspicious about timing for sure .
I believe your point about future neutron experiments is a key aspect for NIF. My MS and PhD dealt with fusion engineering. A key aspect, as I am sure you know, is having first wall and super conducting magnet materials that can withstand long term high energy neutron fluences. If NIF can perform ignition shots as a regular operation, I hope real fusion condition tests can help with determining the best first wall material plus other energy conversion aspects.
This is a good child's story, moving forward and ESP becoming completely normal.
This reminding me of the tv show “the man who fell to earth” ( the remake)
This is unbelievable 🤯 we’re really living in the future
5:30
I made that aluminum part that holds the silver pellet. Diamond turned to replicate a mirror finish. One of the most difficult parts I have ever machined.
That's too cool. Just curious, how long did it take to build the aluminum part? How much did it cost to build?
@@GreenEnvy. It only took about a week to make. I dont remember how much we charged them. There was a lot of engineering charges that went into it also.
Keep on practicing. Once they go commercial they'll need 900.000 a day! 😂😂😂
"how many shots do you take a day" "about one shot a day" - the only thing i related to this entire episode. cheers to science i dont understand but think is cool
this made me laugh irl
Homer Simpson's Brain : "More energy can make more shots!"
how many shots you take a day kristina?
🙂 "It is one thing to believe, another thing to see it in action." I agree with that. 👌
5:14, the power of the sun, in the palm of my hand.
It's insane how theelse breakthroughs always start off as these ginormous machines but end up the size of something you can hold on your hand. Just look at the first computer. It filled up an entire room whereas today our cell phones are basically supercomputers. I'm 37 years old and to know my son and his children's future looks like this is amazing!
Few people have an interest in following the history of past projects that grew large and then collapsed due to impracticality. Some people believe it is best to forget such embarrassing incidents and to shied our offspring from references to such failures. I encourage you to look up Project Plowshare which spent around 17 years testing nuclear explosives to perform various civil engineering applications.
It is unlikely that there will be many of us, let alone grandchildren in the near future. The vast majority of Earth's 8.0+ billion people have become quite masterful in excluding the following warning articles from their consciousness. Denial is a normal human coping mechanism to deal with cognitive dissonance of the threats we are now facing. I urge readers to search for the following article headlines.
IPCC report: ‘now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster (TheGuardian)
UN chief: World has less than 2 years to avoid 'runaway climate change' (TheHill)
* This statement was made 4-years ago.
@@vernonbrechin4207 Pipe down, Vernon
Yeah. Imagine the fusion bombs they’ll have too!
@@the-guy-on-your-moms-couch I was thinking the exact same thing. It'll be weaponized before it's used for anything else.
Room? Try small WAREHOUSE! 😂 But yeah, you’re correct. My parents neighbor worked for NASA putting men in space and the moon. He lived long enough to see the Apollo 13 movie (yet watched it unfold and worked to save them too!). One of his favorite parts was when Hanks is giving the congressman’s party the “tour” and says something along the lines of “some day we will have this super computer down to the size of an average room…”
To think, there are social media scientists who literally want to argue that these dedicated scientists, who have been doing this work for decades, have no idea what they are talking about. Astonishing accomplishment, with even more to come. What a time to be alive.
Dude called out Neil Degrasse Tyson
@@chickenbroski99 the irony of your response is really something to behold.
@@eddie6198 It's incredible how many social media scientists exist, I'm surprised they haven't discovered negative gravity.
@@chickenbroski99 You are Correct 💯%
@@billyunair all I know is this... Spider-man 2 (2004) forewarned this... If this is not done properly moving forward, it can turn disastrous.
Fusion energy is just around the corner...and it always will be.
It's hilarious and awesome that they used a cat's whisker to place that target bead.
Sir Issac Newton would be proud.
From a machine, a star is born. That's just insane.
We can forge the Hammer
@@CreoleCassanova Need to visit California ASAP, that's for sure!
@@CreoleCassanova first the engineers have to figure out how to build is a forge. Then they have to make it practical. It’s doable but it ain’t gonna be easy
@@matthewcaughey8898 nothing worthwhile is ever easy, usually
@@matthewcaughey8898 The future has the potential to be bright if we don't destroy ourselves. There is so much we can do with fusion energy that it's crazy! Unlimited energy for the entire world that's clean, efficient, and unlimited. Not to mention the effect this would have on space exploration.
The great thing about science is that it never fails to give us hope for the future.
Only for the wealthy.
The opposite of religion.
I'm still waiting and hoping for the cure for the common cold.
@@accuratealloys Fusion is no different to a religion. It barely exists and ten's of billions invested give very poor results.
Unlike religion which just says the world will end instead if finding solutions.
Gotta respect the commitment to this technology, they know how important it is to do this.
Those who view the entire video and pay close attention may come to realize that this work isn't aimed at eventually creating an economical practical nuclear fusion energy demonstration power plant some day. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) management has always cleverly obscured the facility's primary function from the day it was conceived. It has always been primarily funded as a thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb) research tool. The ruse has fooled the press which then plays the story up to satisfy public desires.
This was a great, down to earth and realistic, story. Thanks guys.
Because you wanted to believe this story!?
My money is still on torodial plasmoid generation via extreme hydrodynamic shear.
I'd love to hear the reason why they use copper near the cylinder that houses the actual experimental pellet.
Np😊
@@that773guy4 Because copper built the pyramids of course.
This is so impressive. Kudos to all the scientists and engineers who made this possible!
@@rongooden6545some people just wanna watch the world burn
@@rongooden6545nuclear fusion weaponry came first, they literally say it in the video……
Doesn’t matter it’s not scalable at all or profitable unlike fission which is the cleanest safest most reliable energy source we have
But ohhh we make a gallon of waste every sixth month how ever will we dispose of it🙄
Dont forget the technologist
Then you didn’t follow.
Fusion involves turning some protons into neutrons, releasing positrons and extra neutrons, which will inevitably destroy the containment.
INEVITABLY
"The power of the sun in the palm of my hands" what could go wrong
My grandfather once told me, "Grandson, when fusion becomes real, write this comment. Make it seem insightful and hopeful so that the future generations know that you were among the first apostles of that Science". Ironically enough, ignition happened exactly at my grandpa's death anniversary. He used to fuse metals for a living, and his middle name was Laser.
Was his first name Government-Funded, and his last name Military-Grade?
Same Tbh
@@gmork1090 i think his cousin is bob lazar
It's true. I was there. However, it was all staged. Your grandpa is alive and well. Working and making deals behind closed doors to ensure the perpetuity of the Apostles of Science without raising too much attention. 🔭🥼
The ability to handle controlled fusion would be life changing. This first step could be the beginning of an entirely new way of life.
Those same beliefs existed back in the 1970s when the efforts to create a controlled fusion reaction began. Even back then they thought a demonstration of a economically practical nuclear fusion reactor was only 20 to 30 years away. It is still likely that far away. It will come too late. Please search for the following articles.
IPCC report: ‘now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster (TheGuardian)
UN chief: World has less than 2 years to avoid 'runaway climate change' (TheHill)
* This statement was made 4.4 years ago.
I'm excited about the achievement. It's Awesome that's this 1st big hurdle has been leaped. On to the next one & Away We GO!!!
I am not very scientifically inclined and yet this video completely held my attention for 13 minutes, what an awesome accomplishment for these scientists and engineers
Yes to hold your attention for 13 minutes sure is quite an accomplishment
Trying to grow a Sun in a lab and plug an extension cord and enjoy power for long time.
@@trotsky8256 what I am saying is usually I’m too busy working or living instead of pretending to be Sid the science kid on TH-cam
@@901amg9 If you where inclined you would have been lauffing all the way thru with all their false claims from ignorance! They should actually bother to google the subject before writing the scripts ! LOL But that doesnt fix dumb!
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 Nice experiment... But hardly any USEFUL purpose. Way better to focus on Liquid Thorium Reactors. The United States DOE simply GAVE China ALL of the Thorium flouride salt technology it had. Commercial fusion is NOT a decade away.
A piece of thorium the size of a large marble.... Contains ALL of the Energy that a human needs, for their lifetime. ZERO danger of radioactive steam explosion.
Fuel costs a small fraction of the very expensive Uranium -ceramic Rods.
In 1970 they said fusion would be available in 30 years and the goal hasn't changed...it will still be available in about 30 years.
Seriously, it may take a long time but it will happen...it has to happen.
Think back only 150 years. They had no idea of the electronic age that we have today.
Fusion may happen, but will it be cheap and reliable? Solar and batteries and wind are constantly improving and lowering in cost.
Can’t believe there’s not a 60 minutes on this yet.
Absolutely amazing stuff
Wow great and honest coverage. Well done team. 😀
The 60 Minutes reporting team was largely snowed, as many are who visit this facility. The reporters failed to ask many probing questions and failed to get advice from more critics of the NIF experiments. I urge readers to search for the following assessments.
Clean Energy or Weapons? What the ‘Breakthrough’ in Nuclear Fusion Really Means (Science - TheWire)
National Ignition Facility - Recommended Reading and Viewing (NewEnergyTimes - NIF)
Wow I did my senior project on this subject when I was in highschool and I didn't think that I would see actual fusion in my lifetime... incredible
You won't.
If you can conquer gravity then fusion will be easy and cheap. Spoiler its been done how many levels beyond top secret one can only speculate.
Im 24, its projected I will see the rise of reverse aging through genetic therapy and fusion energy. It’ll take decades but we will get there.
@@gmork1090 just did?
3 billion dollar white elephant 😂
This is an incredible story about what we as a nation can achieve scientifically. But imagine for a moment what would be possible if our elected officials used the power and resources of our federal government and placed this much emphasis on permanently eliminating poverty in this country. This type of breakthrough is amazing. But Americans living in abject poverty in the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind... We really need to reexamine our priorities.
This is incredibly exciting. Explaining the fusion part of the process in laymen terms really helped understand
I can explain it in layman's terms for you: it's a tillion dollar solution to boil some water.
@@Amocles If all scientists and inventors were as jaded as you we would still be in the stone age.
@@QTEEP It's a very impressive way to boil water.
@@Amocles its not for us, at least not while world leaders focus on the things they focus on. we are a blip on the spectrum. existing on a tiny piece of rock that happened to manifest smart monkeys. enjoy your time.
@@Jdkieddj oh I certainly will. You too fellow human, much love.
Every cent spent on this project is INSANELY worth it. These damn Americans, man 🔥🫡
It is estimated that approximately $11 billion has been expended on the NIF project. The target assembly, that is turned into a plasma by each laser shot, is estimated to cost approximately $100,000. The experiment took about a week to prepare to generate an approximately 0.00000000008 second flash of fusion energy, about enough to boil about two liters of water. NIF was expected to achieve this goal by 2012 but failed by a factor of more than ten then.
NiF has always been primarily funded as a thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb) research tool but has always been presented to the public as a viable path to a future economically practical nuclear fusion power plant.
Most nuclear fusion physicists have long agreed that the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) used by NIF is unlikely to ever lead to a future economically practical nuclear fusion power plant. Many techno nerds believe that all approaches should be generously funded despite expert evaluations that certain approaches are not likely to end up producing viable results.
This has always been the stuff of sci-fi. A late game Tech-tree option in Sid Meier’s Civilization. This truly is amazing to see this in my lifetime.
I love those games , especially developing a colony on an alien planet
IT'S ALL A LIE!!! It wasn't 2 units in and got 3 units out. It was 300 units in and 3 units out. It's stated at 9:51 . This is what really happened. A very expensive diamond sphere was vaporized by a very expensive laser array which caused an explosion, and these over paid, do nothing people are claiming it to be a breakthrough. Now they can keep there cushy jobs.
You've researched Future Tech 1
They have a saying, "Fusion power has been '20 years away' for 50 years."
...only it's not just a saying!
Not to be outdone, engineers at area 51: Hold my beer, let's make those lightsabers now.
Excellent journalism. Thanks.
When JFK set NASA's goal of reaching the moon in 10 years, people thought it was impossible. With this experiment, we know it is possible to achieve commercial fusion. I hope to see it succeed in my lifetime.
JFK inspired us as a nation. Biden doesn't inspire anyone. Also, Sputnik showed the USA that they were behind the USSR, which the USA as a whole, did not like.
Yeah, but rockets actually existed when he said that.
no. that is incorrect. This experiment says nothing about commercial fusion. This experiment says ONLY that the energy fusion was greater than the energy plasma. 2.x MegaJoules of plasma in: 3.x MegaJoules of plasma out. That is a good thing. The lasers, however, required 384~400+ MegaJoules of energy in order to create that 2.x MegaJoules of plasma.
the NIF results are a mile-stone, not a break through. Every wanna-be fusion research lab around the globe has to achieve a gain of greater than 1 for fusion-out/plasma-in.
Doesn't mean that the reaction is sustainable, or cost effective. Nor does it help with radioactive waste: 1/2 of fusion fuel requires FISSION reactors to create. Currently there are not enough fission reactors (422) around the world to create enough tritium to drive ITER for a day. (If ITER ever runs).
@@Verfolnir "Currently there are not enough fission reactors (422) around the world to create enough tritium to drive ITER for a day"
That figure is meaningless as the actual number dedicated to producing the fuel is tiny, less than 10 I think.
You are correct that we will probably need a sizable number of dedicated tritium breeding fission reactors in service to provide the tritium side of the fuel.
Deuterium can be found in ordinary water though at 1 part per 1000.
Why can't they go now?
Always enjoy 60 minutes coverage. The way they layout their stories and approach them is unrivaled.
@@karlwithak1835 tg guy
Okay, I will
Propaganda GARBAGE
It's the stop watch
@Karl with a K
No one cares what you think Karl. Cry some more.
Very well done thank you!
This is amazing stuff.
This is absolutely incredible.. I hope my 8 year old son will someday see this technology become a reality for his future world..
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@MilkoOfficialChannel what's so funny??
Doubt. This will take generations to repeat and stabilize. Hopefully it does before it is weaponized and use to wipe out millions of a group of people for economic advancement
If he lives to his 80's I think it's very likely that he will see practical fusion power become a reality. I'm hoping for fusion powered spacecraft that will open up the solar system to manned exploration.
Such a great point to look back at history and think the Wright Brothers only flew 120ft (37m) on their first flight in 1902. It was roughly 10-15 years after that time planes were used in WW1.
People doubted the Wright Brothers that "flying" wasn't possible.
This sounds so familiar in relation to the doubters of today.
The achievement on Dec 5th is no doubt remarkable. This goes out to all the privet companies working around the globe.
Congratulations for this small step in a huge process. I believe in you bright and talented people will make this happen.
Thank you
I have similar view on the topic, humans knew what is required from powered flight for over a century at that point (fluid dynamics), and saw birds doing it since forever. Story of the fusion as energy source is very similar, we know the physics behind it (to some degree, because QCD is so complex we only have approximations). But in both cases several technological breakthroughs are (were) required to achieve the ultimate goal. For example Commonwealth Fusion is developing high temperature superconductors that should allow for much smaller tokomak/stellarator designs, enabling to iterate over the design (they plan to show net energy gain before Iter is even operational). There is also General Fusion and Helion that both achieve fusion and plan to show net energy gain in several years (both using completly different approach than tokamaks). It is hard to say what is the progress of China in this field as you can not really trust sincerity of the claims they provide (but can't dismiss their prowess either).
We always get the worlds greatest inventions every 120 years, Harley Davidson also came out in 1902 a lot of stuff actually
Patting yourselves on the back over this isn’t really the same as the first flight which can get into immediate production. Maybe in 50 years you can do the ol back pat, if ever!
Birds can fly, but no animal can do fusion. The comparison you are making, makes no sense. Flight can happen under normal conditions. Fusion happens only under extreme conditions. Fusion is extremely difficult to make economically viable. This "breakthrough" does not mean anything. It takes us no closer to fusion as power source on earth. Its like you didn't even watch the video. 300 energy "units" user to get 3 out. Lol.
@@shitmandood your name and icon say it all, bruh
They say any technology you see in real time, is already a decade obsolete. If you marvel at this moment in science, imagine what you don't see that's hidden from you.
Personally I like the comparison of the Univac computer to modern computers. A whole room dedicated to running computations in the 50's would be easily accomplished with a handheld device now. The tech is just going to get smaller and better as time goes on
Not all technically innovative experiments make it to practical developments. Often it is found that they can't economically compete with existing, or with alternative, technologies. We don't hear much about the failures since many consider that to be embarrassing and not worth remembering. Those, who are most likely to not understand this, tend to be relatively young. The U.S. program called Project Plowshare is an example of a failed project that few are aware of. It lasted for at least 15 years and then was quietly defunded. It was championed by the imminent nuclear physicist, Dr. Edward Teller who is also known at the father of the American H-bomb. It experimented with nuclear explosions for a variety of civil engineering applications. I urge readers to look up the Wikipedia article on it.
Practical fission has been 15 years away since I was twenty years old. I am seventy six and it’s still fifteen years away. Even so, congratulations.
Math is math and reality is what it is. What a great lab experiment and what a stupid way of trying to GET energy . It will ALLWAYS BE 30 YEARS AWAY. You will be 2,076 years old and it will still be 30 years away. That's because math is math and reality is what it is.....
76 years old people don’t know what TH-cam is, let alone how to create an account or write a comment
Did you mean fusion?
@@besmart2350 You just embarrassed yourself with a post. The information you denied was right in your face.
This is NOT the breakthrough people seem to think it is. They did not create more energy than was used to initiate the fusion, as a lot of places are reporting. They created more energy with the fusion ignition than the output of the lasers they used to initiate the fusion. However, when ALL the input energy that was used to fire the lasers are taken into account, the fusion process still out output like 1% of the total power used in the process of initiating that fusion! No where near enough to truly be viable. Glad someone is finally reporting this properly!
Have to tap up the Chinese to use their new Super Mirror Power Plant 🌞
The lasers are 30 year old tech. There are way more efficient lasers available. Now that this achievement has happened, more funding may mean and upgraded facility. Can't upgrade without results...
This is what our world leaders should be working on together instead of fighting eachother. Stuff like this anyway we'll get much further much faster together than we ever will apart.
It’s taken sixty years to sustain a reaction for a billionth of a second. At this rate of progress in a billion years we will sustain a reaction for a sixtieth of a second. Do the math!
It's 20 years away. They said the same thing 20 years ago.
Wow! This could change everything. I wish I could live to be 150 so I could see what's coming.
This is So Cool. Clean energy !!
Achieving ignition is an insane milestone that I don't think most people expected to see for a long time, if ever. What the NIF did isn't intended to be the commercial-ready design, but more a proof of concept. Now that we've seen it CAN be done, you're likely to see this s-curve of funding and interest in the private sector now and it'll massively accelerate the timeline. Looking at what companies like Helion have achieved already- I don't think it's impossible to see a viable commercial reactor design within a decade.
yes how many would we need and who would own them .would it be free for all or just the usa .
Now imagine the insane engineering challenge that will be finding a way to feed those pellets several times per second! If they had to do all those things just to blast ONE motionless pellet, the real challenge is designing a machine that can feed those pellets into that specific point in 3D space, in just a few milliseconds, and hold them there for a split second to be shot at, in a way that doesn´t interfere with the lasers.
@@Biden_is_demented Right, so that's why I said the NIF's test facility won't translate to a commercial reactor. Feeding a laser confinement reactor with thousands of pellets a day just makes no sense. But just proving that we can achieve ignition in lab conditions is a massive achievement.
A few large tech companys have been poring money into fusion in the past 12 months, pretty amazing.
Exactly. It's like the Wright Brothers plane. No one criticised it then for not being a jumbo jet. It proved that heavier than air objects could fly through the air - but from that proof of concept everything else could follow
When he put that little perfect metal ball in his palm, all I could think was "The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand." Thanks Doc Ock 🤣🤣
I have the opportunity to work on Shiva- Novett and Nova and the French version of Nova, I worked in the clean room and built and tested the half shells. And sometimes worked on the capacitor Banks, I was proud to be part I'm such a big experiment, too bad there were so many backstabbers back in the day that took credit for the work that I did.
Sorry to hear that you got backstabbed for that work. When working with Shiva, Novett and Nova, which were predecessor ICF machines to NIF, were you and your co-workers aware that virtually all the funding was intended for thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb) simulation experiments. Most of the fusion fans that see the above video have no idea when ICF experiments began (late-1970s) and they are unaware that the lasers that came before NIF were expected to address all the instability issues before NIF began operations. Once it achieved full power it was expected to achieve 'ignition' by 2012. It missed it by more than a factor of ten. It took another decade to make the claim addressed in the above video.
Now all you need is the mass of a star and it’ll work 😂
Then you'll be able to vaporize the earth yes? But that's not the goal.
I want a blueprint of a commercial version of this on my desk by next Tuesday.
I distinctly remember being promised pickup-truck-sized fusion reactors that would power large cities, by 2000 or 2020.
@3:04 all I can hear is Dr. Evil going "fire the 'laser'"
Kind of weird that the showtime series The Fallen comes out all about this. Then this all happens. Wilddddd. Anyone interested into this do research. You won't be let down.
This video did not mention the psychological effect it has on other fusion scientists. It must be motivating to be reassured that fusion is feasible!
Not really. They already knew it was theoretically possible.
@@Gomlmon99yeah but to see the experiment actually get played out - successfully - is AMAZING! Only something other theoretical scientists can only dream of doing.
well its not like they can jsut interview a bnch of scientists, they are busy you know, doing fusion stuff.
@@Kalashboy420 lol fusion stuff
AI will solve this problem before humans do. Won't take 50-60+ years like many think. Will only take like 15-25 more years, because AI will be able to come up with better, more efficient solutions to the problem that does not require a huge building, with giant lazers, like it takes now. AI, once smart enough, with access to enough real world information, will be able to mix and match engineering strategies and select the most cost effective, and smallest solutions. Humans are currently trying to find ONE single solution to make fusion economical, AI will be able to find thousands of different solutions to make fusion economical, then select the best ones depending on preferred methods used and prefered scale etc. Eventually, the fusion units will be the size of a microwave, and contain a power supply, with enough matter, to power your entire home for 200+ years. People will literally have a small tiny star in their homes, similar to the sun, that powers everything in their home.
I farted, and then said, “Who farted?” So I’m kind of on par with these physicists intellectually, and I respect their contributions to humanity as much as I’m sure they respect mine.
Let’s not let the word “breakthrough” get us too hyped.
Count me in, Thanks for sharing.
In the early 60's, I was in my high school's Science Club and at that time we were told that fusion power was ten years away and would result in safe, inexpensive and abundant energy such as civilization has never enjoyed. Over the decades my interest in the many sciences has never waned and likewise the estimate of when fusion power would give us the ultimate energy fix has never changed. Fusion power is ten years in the future and always will be, but I'm running out of decades as you too will run out of decades in your life, but remember as you die, fusion power will be ten years in the future.
Each new generation tends to think it is special and those in the past didn't have the skills and tools that they have 'today.' It seems inconceivable to many of them that those who came before them had the same expectation that they have and when those ideals slipped through their fingers they brought another generation into the world with the hope that they can accomplish what they couldn't.
@@vernonbrechin4207 And yet technological change can happen so incredibly fast that it leaves most of us behind before we even know what's happening. Look at pictures of downtown New York taken in 1910 and another of the very same street taken in 1915. Automobiles replaced horses in a heartbeat and electric lights replaced gas and kerosene as quickly. It has been my experience that prudent and reality-grounded scientists are reluctant to say just when a technology will mature.
@@oldgeezerproductions - Don't forget that we tend to be immersed in a one sided story regarding technological progress. Numerous projects never prove to be economically practical and fade while we shift our view to the success stories.
Many efforts are considered not worth remembering, or taught to the newer generations. For example, around the 1960s their was an almost 20 year program called Project Plowshare in the U.S. It involved experiments to employ nuclear explosives for a range of various civil engineering projects. Today, when I tell young people about it they assume the people behind to program must have been crazy. A primary promoter of the program of was the eminent nuclear physicist Dr Edward Teller, also known as the father of the American H-bomb.
I'm glad to see there're are still people doing amazing and great things and not just TikTok versions of them. This and the James Webb give me hope that humanity is not lost yet. 👏🍻
As long as we continue to repair the atmospheric carbon deficit it's all good.
free top G
@@irs4486 no doubt bruv
Stop wasting your time on TikTok if you don’t like it. Hating on a hobby you don’t like and don’t have to engage with is ridiculous
60 years in the making- congratulations to all involved along the way!
sounds like a union job. 60 years later and we can boil 2 pots of coffee!
They still have nothing to show for.
@@gizmo6746 Didn't you see that doohickey?
I’m sure they will give it to a right to work state and some foreigners will do it cheaper.
I'd like to take full credit
Wonderful! Now if only by some processes they could sustain the reaction for more than a few seconds! Those small pellets are very expensive!
The nearly perfectly spherical diamond shell fuel capsule, the inserted deuterium/tritium fuel, the surrounding gold plated hohlraum and the supporting structure have been estimated to cost approximately $100,000. It was all turned into an exploding radioactive plasma during the 0.000000003 second laser pulse blast and nuclear fusion reaction. The energy released by the nuclear fusion reaction was approximately what it would take to boil a couple of liters of water. If I boiled the same amount of water at home it would cost me about $0.40 in household electrical energy.
The nuclear fusion reaction only lasted approximately 0.00000000008 seconds. It started in a microscopic volume and then the enormous forces of that emitted energy blew 96% of the remaining fuel away from the reaction center. This was expected since the NIF lab has always been primarily funded as the thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb) research tool and thermonuclear weapons also blow much of the fuel away from the reaction center before it has a chance to react. They use the term 'ignition' in a misleading way.
This is the one I was looking for👍 0:59
lol and it took WAY more power to start than it produced. we've been "on the edge of energy revolution" for 50+ years
I have dreamed about this for 20 years since my science class in 10 grades. I nearly forgot that was even possible. I doubt that they will be able to scale up to 100 times this in 20 years, but I hope my children get to enjoy this breakthrough.
Engineers have the ball now
Teachers in Industrial Technology learned about the promise and need for fusion power in 1970. It was touted as essential to our energy future and would eliminate the perils of nuclear fission. That was over 50 years ago. Stay tuned!
Have some faith, friend. Remember the old brick phones in the 80's? 30 years later we have the smartphone. 10 years after that they are practically computers in our pockets. Who knows how rapid the advancements will be. But I'm going to bet pretty fast.
@@SilentEagle2029 let's hope so, the possibilities with that power source are endless
"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
So commercial fusion is only 20 years away.
That's what they were saying in the 1970s.
Someone needs to explain to 60 Minutes, basic thermodynamics please
The device consumed 130x more energy than it produced. Success!
This is the kind of governmental accounting we've come to expect.
It's all about how useful the ridiculously powerful military-funded laser is and a few other small related projects. Producing clean energy isn't one of them.
@@gmork1090 There are plenty of great weapons technologies can be developed from this kind of research. If they inadvertently stumble onto a way to create real net positive energy while exploring novel ways of committing genocide...bonus!
YAAWWWWWWWN. Another, just 10 years away announcement those of us not born yesterday have been hearing all our lives.
They're going to try it again next month, i would hope all of them great success...
this reminds me of how computers back in the day were huge machines, that basically calculated numbers. & now we got smartphones, that do that as well as insane computational tasks in just a small package. Now imagine if in the next 100 years people would have fusion devices in the size of a small box generating free unlimited power.
We off to the next game of the millenia. Something that makes more power than what you put into. 📡👽🇺🇸 RUN!!! I guess it's a start in the right direction.
With the help of AI and automation, 15 years
Do not hold your breath, spend all that research on fission( or actually a small fraction and use the leftover money to build several clean Thorium or dirty isotope reactors here and now. Just look at how complex those prototype fusion reactors are, safe sure because they will be down most of the time. This research is just keeping us from better alternatives OTH I hope I am wrong and this stuff comes on line within five years.
@@charlesincharge.5161 Do you consider the magnitude of the fission reactors? They really put out compared to something that barely breaks even. Wait you can power the lasers with a fission reactor, Don Quixote would be proud. Sorry for my negativity. misdirection is a crime.
You guys are LITERALLY doing Gods work
500 points-USA
And thank you 60 minutes doing coverage on this
I wonder how reliable it is. Is this result produced every time? All very exciting