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.
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.
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 >.>
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.
@@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.
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.
@@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.
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.
After investigating the experiment, and finding out the results were all questionable due to failed instrument listings. Better keep this one in the toilet.
I really appreciate the comments. To be clear, I was more focusing on the format presented by 60 minutes. It was not too bullish or bearish and it was a long format like a typical 60 minutes. Just enough to drill down. . I think they were investigative and really broke things down for the general public. For the record, I am still bearish on the breakthrough because I have been a casual follower for some time myself. My reasoning is the lack of the tritium resource and the fact that it seems to have its own energy grid to produce such a small net of energy. For the 60 minutes Australia, I run across some vids on that on YT as well. Always like it but I only focus on tech and tech related items. No matter what, the presentation is few weeks late but I believe they (60 minutes) used that time to let the dust settle on the hype and give us more content and behind the scenes in a long format which the era I came from.
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...
@@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.
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 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
"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.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
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
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.
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!... 👍🏻👍🏻
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.
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🙄
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.
@@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.
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.
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…”
@@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 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.
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
"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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
@@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.
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. 👏🍻
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
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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).
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.
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.
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
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.
First steps are often ugly but they lay the groundwork for greater things. We must embrace theses baby steps, internalize them and innovative from them. Congratulations to the team at ignition you have made your country proud.
This form of fusion is just not going to work unless someone invents lasers which are magnitudes more powerful and efficient than the current ones. There are far more novel and promising approaches than the financial sinkhole that is laser powered fusion. Personally I'm betting on something similar to the approach being used by Helion energy.
@@laughingachilles 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 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.
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.
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.
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.....
@@Gomlmon99yeah but to see the experiment actually get played out - successfully - is AMAZING! Only something other theoretical scientists can only dream of doing.
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.
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!
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...
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.
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.
The overall changes for humanity and the face of the world would be far reaching. I agree, I probably won't get to see this, but who knows in 50 or more years. Humanity can do some truly amazing things.
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.
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. 🔭🥼
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Great report, as always from 60 minutes. Very exciting step, even considering the 300/3 ratio mentioned near the end. I certainly hope there can be steady, incremental improvements. Honestly, I think 50 years would still be impressive! Let's see if it can be reality!
@@chrismoser9676 This whole episode was a total bunch of false claims! they left out all the improtant parts inclduign it too 300 units to make the 2 units to get 3 units out! THATS KINDA IMPORTANT! 🤦♂🤣 Plus the reasons its an impossible idea to get to work!
The management of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and its NIF facility have always been masters at obscuring the primary purpose of the labs. It is nuclear weapons related research and has been since the first nuclear weapons were developed. Secrecy has been an essential aspect of their job.
@@vernonbrechin4207 The defense related work has certainly paid the bills, but there's a lot of other work that's done there. They're pretty open with what they do there. The results of experiments at NIF have been written up in various publications for years.
It is always good to have experimental proof. While ignition is possible, the requirements to generate these conditions do not scale linearly with the amount of energy produced. We effectively solved one problem by side-stepping into another unsolvable problem.
The use of the term ‘ignition’ is deliberately misleading. The average person assumes that it is something like a fire-match head being struck. In that case the chemical reaction begins at one point and then it spreads rapidly until all the match-head fuel is consumed. In the above experiment the fusion reaction only lasted for about 0.000,000,000,08 second then the force of the explosion blasted about 96% of the extremely compressed, extremely expensive, deuterium/tritium fuel plasma was too rarified to react. There was little propagation of the reaction. This is similar to other nuclear fusion energy experiments where the fusion fusion reactions can only occur when compression and heating energy is fed into the system. In the case of this NIF experiment over 100 time as much energy went into pumping the lasers than was generated by the extremely brief fusion reaction. Keep in mind that nuclear fusion energy experiments began in the 1950s, There were five large laser systems that preceded NIF. NIF was supposed to have achieved this ‘breakthrough’ shot by 2012 but failed by a factor of more than 100 then.
@@Vincent_C - Glad to be of help. Most of the company promoters have learned to utilize the extremely arcane and complex nature of the field to snow most of those they are sales pitching to. This includes journalists, the general public and the funders. It appears that most of the funders have been depending upon 'critical assessments' prepared by nuclear fusion energy fans since their are very few people outside the field who are considered to be experts in it. It is estimated that over $11-billion USD of federal revenues have been expended on the NIF project. The reason, which was not made clear in the above video, is because it has always been primarily funded as a thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb) research tool. The administrators have always been masterful in obscuring that fact when presenting to a general audience. Nuclear fusion energy research has likely consumed over $1-trillion USD since the experiments began in the 1950s. Now spending on it is in the billions of dollars per year, on well over a dozen machines located in many countries. It has become a major business to pitch for more funding to keep the numerous experimenters happy.
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!
Appreciate the realistic future represented in this segment. With how exponentially fast technology is advancing I believe we will see commercial fusion power whether by lasers or magnets in my lifetime (age 25 now)
It still won't happen fast enough to prevent the ruination of millions more scenic acres. kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Fig-2-JEsse-Event-2-1536x950.png
@@malikr2271 No, thats very unlikely. By now we also have the industries inveting and researching, because the main scientific questions are answered. Now it´s down to engeneering a device that actually works on these principles. Which means there is now a vested interest into getting things to work, not just a question of "is it possible", a big workforce and a lot of money behind it. Which menas we passed the stage of if, and got to when it will happen. And considering that for fossil fuels used in energy the writing is on the wall one way or another, there is a big pressure and interest to find an alternative that is not already cornered by other companies, like wind or solar, and more practical/centralised so they get a leg up in the market. And fusion is the perfect solution considering how high the costs of nuclear reactors are and how disliked they are by the public. (and I agree with that, because while theoretically these things can be very safe, interest in maximising profits and the fact that humans work with it are the major points of failure. With Fukushima being a good example, because few people notice that there was actually powerplants closer and harder hit by the earthquake and tsunami, but didnt suffer a meltdown because in contrast to Fukushima these were good and well equiped and operated/up to date on safety.) So we will likely see the first working powerplants in 10-15 years, with a fast spread of these afterwards.
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.
Thank you everyone at LBNL and the NIF. This is really sci-fi stuff that gives me hope for the future. And happening in Livermore of all places. Keep it up soldiers! Nice to know this is happening day in and day out in my backyard essentially.
Just makes me think of computers from the 60's and how massive they were compared to the actual amount of computing they would do. 3or4 decades from now, this facility they created this fusion in, maybe the size of a small car or even a cell phone!! Who knows! Really cool to think about...
Wow! I had the opportunity to work a film production for NatGeo (I believe) and went to this very place! I got to see this machine up close and it was impressive then and just as impressive now! It's so very neat to see our potential. Let's hope it can offset our hubris.
@@justjustice1424 The hoax that I went there and worked for a day? Or the fact that we as humans are far more capable than tiny minded people are inclined to believe...mostly due to their own self-imposed limitations. Enjoy your life of ignorant luxury while the rest of us get to work.
@@davidh6300 Yes, and given the current energy requirement for the laser of around 300 times the energy generated, we will have plenty of time to not think up those nefarious uses. What a relief!
@@pcrizz 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...
Incredible video on the topic of nuclear fusion! It's fascinating to see the progress being made in this field and the potential impact it could have on our world.
It won't happen because if it did there would be NO MONEY to be made in order to support it. You honestly believe they want to create free energy for all? NO THEY DONT remember they already have cures for AIDS and CANCER yet if they released it BIG PHARMA would be outta business.
This will have very little impact, the green movement is no longer about climate change or saving the environment... it's about money now. It's a trillion dollar business at this point.
"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."
Not even close. Did you watch the video? When the contribution of the laser energy is included it was roughly 302 units input, 3 units output. And it was not self sustaining. Some breakthrough.
The primary goal of the National Ignition Facility was not to work toward controlled fusion for energy production, but rather to advance the science around nuclear weapons and their maintenance. It's the start-ups that are working toward commercial fusion energy production.
Yep. Not a fusion energy experiment but a military laser one. Nuclear power is just the almost-but-not-quite-a-lie used to get billion-dollar investors on board.
That's such fascinating news, especially now that nuclear energy is a big topic. And that's interesting that you guys approached one of the points that we talked about in our last production about nuclear power. Our team researched the topic since many people think that's the answer to the current energy crisis, and we found several reasons why using it as a solution is much more complicated than we think.
Its always been possible, check out the sun, of course I do know what you are getting at, if you want to get a good one on most people just ask" what is the closest star to the earth" Peace.
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)
As a long time fan of Sixty Minutes I was impressed by their caution at hyping this breaktrough yet still thought they needed to tune it down a bit more. This was clearly an engineering accomplishment as the physics was resolved many decades ago. At about 13 minutes into the broadcast the door was opened. -They manage about 1 "shot" per day, only one of which has actually released more energy than it consumed. Many more failed -The energy gain" they achieved was three units out per one unit in at the target. That didn't account for the 300 units of energy that went into firing the lasers so the ACTUAL output was 300 in, three out. -They would need to fire ten shots per second contiuously to generate a meaningful amount of power. So, yes, they were able to show that the fusion reaction released more energy than the laser energy input but the did not show a net energy gain. That means that they do not have the equivalent situation of the Wright flier. That was a machine demonstrating all of the fundamental design elements of a WW1 airplane, needing only refinement. A closer example might be that they have got the menu for making gunpowder (1300 AD in China) and what we need is a Saturn 5 moon rocket (1969 at the moon) to build a first fusion power plant. Not in my lifetime, not in yours either.
It isn't a fusion breakthrough. This is a military facility. Fusion is just the deception to get the funding to produce a more powerful defense laser. They practically admit this on their website for Jiminy's sake. It's like how clean energy requires dirty energy to operate and mine and produce.
You are not accounting for how fast technology is evolving since the industrial revolution, we went from achieving major human milestones in thousands or hundreds of years to decades or even years and if technology like AI keeps evolving and getting better, the technology generational gaps can continue to get shorter and humanity can achiver greater goals at a faster pace than anyone ever thought possible.
@@Tikolico Well, the easy things are always done first but at some point every technology matures and real gains slow and then stop. Rocket technology has had major investment over the past 50 years yet the boosters being built today are not significntly more sophisticated than the Saturn 5 from the 1960s.The technology is mature. Computers? My new desktop is faster than my original 1982 computer and does more stuff but it's not really any better than the previous one from five years ago. What has gained is the density of advertising and spam attacks.
Sure but smart countries are building coal fired powered plans from China to Poland. One mine just about to open in Germany. People need energy and nobody cares about global warning in reality.
If you read up on this, it wasn’t a pure 2 units of inputted energy to yield 3 units. They are neglecting some of the input to state that the reaction was a net positive reaction. Incredible achievement and noteworthy. But it’s the equivalent of when Elon announced Tesla’s autopilot. This technology is nowhere near where scientists assumed it would be two decades ago.
Exactly right. There are many MANY very high hurdles yet to cross, not the least of which is finding fuel. The dumbed down "hydrogen is everywhere in the ocean!" argument doesn't cut it since the normal and plentiful variety of hydrogen doesn't work. We might have this technology (if we keep pouring vast mountains of money at it) by 2050, but I have grave doubts that it will be on time. We are wreaking havoc on our planet in the meantime and the havoc is placing those big budgets at risk.
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...
Close but.. sadly no. The energy required to use the laser which then fired the energy to create the reaction was over 100 times as many megajoules as was produced. If we could fire lasers for zero energy cost then this would be a breakthrough. As it stands this is just the answer to the fact billion dollar donators are realizing tritium will run out around 2040 and the only real hope to make more via tritium breeding blankets won't even be tested until 2035 in the ITER reactor.
@@gmork1090 Unless you yourself are an actual scientist, you don't know what you're talking about! The scientists in this interview are not saying what you're saying! I'm sure in 10 years they'll be much better at this than they are now!
@@dereckguilfoyle1219 Are you a scientist? I'm sure they are aware of all they need to know about their experiments! This all will play out over years to come!
Did you even watch the video? The woman SAYS the power required to fire the lasers was 300 units, they only produced 3. th-cam.com/video/2kh6Ik4-yag/w-d-xo.html Do I have to be a scientist to understand they are being misleading by saying 2 units in 3 out, when its actually 302 units in 3 units out?
![F.HERO Ft. JSPKK x ลำไย ไหทองคำ x M-PEE - ไม่สนิทบิดหมด (Thai Riders Anthem) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPJZ0UihBfk/mqdefault.jpg)
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 >.>
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.
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, 2004
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.
I really appreciate the comments. To be clear, I was more focusing on the format presented by 60 minutes. It was not too bullish or bearish and it was a long format like a typical 60 minutes. Just enough to drill down. . I think they were investigative and really broke things down for the general public. For the record, I am still bearish on the breakthrough because I have been a casual follower for some time myself. My reasoning is the lack of the tritium resource and the fact that it seems to have its own energy grid to produce such a small net of energy.
For the 60 minutes Australia, I run across some vids on that on YT as well. Always like it but I only focus on tech and tech related items. No matter what, the presentation is few weeks late but I believe they (60 minutes) used that time to let the dust settle on the hype and give us more content and behind the scenes in a long format which the era I came from.
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
Fusion within a decade has been the goal for 60 years.
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.
"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.
“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.
Dear 60 Minutes, Thank you for all the years of absolutely fascinating production.
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. 👎🏻
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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.
“The power of the sun. In the palm of my hand.”
-Otto Octavius
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! 😂😂😂
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…”
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.
He got bars!! “….meet the team that brought star power down to earth.”🔥🔥
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
So sorry for your loss!
She’s an Angel in Heaven
Along with our Son
Mate you never know. Newton's third law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Sending love and healing vibes from Australia.
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.
"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?
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.
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
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.
Always enjoy 60 minutes coverage. The way they layout their stories and approach them is unrivaled.
Okay, I will
Propaganda GARBAGE
It's the stop watch
BOGUS TO THE CORE!!!!!!!
Always getting facts wrong. Lazy reporting.
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
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.
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
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).
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
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
First steps are often ugly but they lay the groundwork for greater things. We must embrace theses baby steps, internalize them and innovative from them. Congratulations to the team at ignition you have made your country proud.
It’s not easy creating your own star on Earth.
@@JT-jg8le they didn't step before this. They crawled for 60 years
This form of fusion is just not going to work unless someone invents lasers which are magnitudes more powerful and efficient than the current ones. There are far more novel and promising approaches than the financial sinkhole that is laser powered fusion. Personally I'm betting on something similar to the approach being used by Helion energy.
@@laughingachilles 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 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.
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.
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?
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.
I understand that the goal of fusion energy is always 40 years away. I am also elated to learn the breakthrough.
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 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.
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...
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?
Probably will be too far in the future for most of use to use it, but it'll be great for the future of humanity.
The overall changes for humanity and the face of the world would be far reaching. I agree, I probably won't get to see this, but who knows in 50 or more years. Humanity can do some truly amazing things.
Oh well its for our grandkids not for us
This is the Model T compared to the powers of the consciousness
Which is insignificant compared to the power of the force.
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. 🔭🥼
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!
High Fives to all those brilliant patient scientists!👍👍👍
You guys are LITERALLY doing Gods work
500 points-USA
And thank you 60 minutes doing coverage on this
This is what every nation in the world should be working towards
Why
Yeah dude let’s get Africa in on this
We already have a fusion reactor. It's called the sun. All we have to do is harvest its energy.😊
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
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.
Excellent journalism. Thanks.
Great report, as always from 60 minutes. Very exciting step, even considering the 300/3 ratio mentioned near the end. I certainly hope there can be steady, incremental improvements. Honestly, I think 50 years would still be impressive! Let's see if it can be reality!
Helion fusion is almost there now, check them out.
LOL NO IT WAS TERRIBLE FALSE CLAIMS FROM IGNORANCE!
I wouldn't say "as always". 60 Minutes is only good with non-political subjects nowadays
@@chrismoser9676 This whole episode was a total bunch of false claims! they left out all the improtant parts inclduign it too 300 units to make the 2 units to get 3 units out!
THATS KINDA IMPORTANT! 🤦♂🤣
Plus the reasons its an impossible idea to get to work!
Like
It's 20 years away. They said the same thing 20 years ago.
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 🤣🤣
This is so impressive I do not have words to describe.
This gives me the chills
imagine the things they aren’t telling us and developing
The management of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and its NIF facility have always been masters at obscuring the primary purpose of the labs. It is nuclear weapons related research and has been since the first nuclear weapons were developed. Secrecy has been an essential aspect of their job.
@@vernonbrechin4207 The defense related work has certainly paid the bills, but there's a lot of other work that's done there. They're pretty open with what they do there. The results of experiments at NIF have been written up in various publications for years.
Big dog why would it matter for you to know? Most likely you work as a Doordash driver or something lol.
@@jx4479 Why would it matter where they work?
Spider-Man
Dr. Octavious: "The power of the sun in the power of my hand", but not yet!
This IS awesome. The real definition of awesome.
It is always good to have experimental proof. While ignition is possible, the requirements to generate these conditions do not scale linearly with the amount of energy produced. We effectively solved one problem by side-stepping into another unsolvable problem.
The use of the term ‘ignition’ is deliberately misleading. The average person assumes that it is something like a fire-match head being struck. In that case the chemical reaction begins at one point and then it spreads rapidly until all the match-head fuel is consumed.
In the above experiment the fusion reaction only lasted for about 0.000,000,000,08 second then the force of the explosion blasted about 96% of the extremely compressed, extremely expensive, deuterium/tritium fuel plasma was too rarified to react. There was little propagation of the reaction. This is similar to other nuclear fusion energy experiments where the fusion fusion reactions can only occur when compression and heating energy is fed into the system.
In the case of this NIF experiment over 100 time as much energy went into pumping the lasers than was generated by the extremely brief fusion reaction.
Keep in mind that nuclear fusion energy experiments began in the 1950s, There were five large laser systems that preceded NIF. NIF was supposed to have achieved this ‘breakthrough’ shot by 2012 but failed by a factor of more than 100 then.
@@vernonbrechin4207 Thank you for the detailed explanation. 😀
@@Vincent_C - Glad to be of help. Most of the company promoters have learned to utilize the extremely arcane and complex nature of the field to snow most of those they are sales pitching to. This includes journalists, the general public and the funders. It appears that most of the funders have been depending upon 'critical assessments' prepared by nuclear fusion energy fans since their are very few people outside the field who are considered to be experts in it.
It is estimated that over $11-billion USD of federal revenues have been expended on the NIF project. The reason, which was not made clear in the above video, is because it has always been primarily funded as a thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb) research tool. The administrators have always been masterful in obscuring that fact when presenting to a general audience.
Nuclear fusion energy research has likely consumed over $1-trillion USD since the experiments began in the 1950s. Now spending on it is in the billions of dollars per year, on well over a dozen machines located in many countries. It has become a major business to pitch for more funding to keep the numerous experimenters happy.
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!
Appreciate the realistic future represented in this segment. With how exponentially fast technology is advancing I believe we will see commercial fusion power whether by lasers or magnets in my lifetime (age 25 now)
Give it 50 years+
25 also, hopefully I get to witness this in my lifetime
It still won't happen fast enough to prevent the ruination of millions more scenic acres. kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Fig-2-JEsse-Event-2-1536x950.png
@@malikr2271 No, thats very unlikely. By now we also have the industries inveting and researching, because the main scientific questions are answered. Now it´s down to engeneering a device that actually works on these principles. Which means there is now a vested interest into getting things to work, not just a question of "is it possible", a big workforce and a lot of money behind it. Which menas we passed the stage of if, and got to when it will happen. And considering that for fossil fuels used in energy the writing is on the wall one way or another, there is a big pressure and interest to find an alternative that is not already cornered by other companies, like wind or solar, and more practical/centralised so they get a leg up in the market. And fusion is the perfect solution considering how high the costs of nuclear reactors are and how disliked they are by the public. (and I agree with that, because while theoretically these things can be very safe, interest in maximising profits and the fact that humans work with it are the major points of failure. With Fukushima being a good example, because few people notice that there was actually powerplants closer and harder hit by the earthquake and tsunami, but didnt suffer a meltdown because in contrast to Fukushima these were good and well equiped and operated/up to date on safety.)
So we will likely see the first working powerplants in 10-15 years, with a fast spread of these afterwards.
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.
Thank you everyone at LBNL and the NIF. This is really sci-fi stuff that gives me hope for the future. And happening in Livermore of all places. Keep it up soldiers! Nice to know this is happening day in and day out in my backyard essentially.
You got some brilliant minds on that side. Our future generations thank you guys out there
Are u from there.
Check out ted k . he has a manifesto. They named ted talk after him . he's the bomb
Yha like 400,000 years into the future 😂. To bad the kingdom of Christ will be established on the new earth before that ever takes place
@@Burning_Babylon he dope asf
The power of the sun in the palm of my hand. 😎🙌🏽
Not even close. Where'd you get such an absurd idea?
What movie supervillain did you borrow that line from?
Perfect! That little bead was literally in the palm of his hand!
@@starventure Doctor Octopus
Rent ?
Well even if it takes 50 years, sounds like it’s still great news for human civilization
This is a good child's story, moving forward and ESP becoming completely normal.
Just makes me think of computers from the 60's and how massive they were compared to the actual amount of computing they would do. 3or4 decades from now, this facility they created this fusion in, maybe the size of a small car or even a cell phone!! Who knows! Really cool to think about...
100%
absolutely awesome video. the coverage of every angle is a rarity
They have a saying, "Fusion power has been '20 years away' for 50 years."
...only it's not just a saying!
Amazing
Wow! I had the opportunity to work a film production for NatGeo (I believe) and went to this very place! I got to see this machine up close and it was impressive then and just as impressive now!
It's so very neat to see our potential. Let's hope it can offset our hubris.
Lol still spreading the hoax
@@justjustice1424 The hoax that I went there and worked for a day?
Or the fact that we as humans are far more capable than tiny minded people are inclined to believe...mostly due to their own self-imposed limitations.
Enjoy your life of ignorant luxury while the rest of us get to work.
Based on past human history, I'm sure we will treat this amazing technology very responsibly.
Of course! It definitely won't be used for weapons, or other nefarious reasons.
@@davidh6300 Yes, and given the current energy requirement for the laser of around 300 times the energy generated, we will have plenty of time to not think up those nefarious uses. What a relief!
I can't wait to not see the nefarious deeds this won't be used for, ever.
@@pcrizz 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...
@@machupikachu1085 The lasers aren't the significant aspect here.
Very well done thank you!
The power of the sun in the palm of my hand - Dr. Otto Octavius ❤️
Incredible video on the topic of nuclear fusion! It's fascinating to see the progress being made in this field and the potential impact it could have on our world.
It won't happen because if it did there would be NO MONEY to be made in order to support it. You honestly believe they want to create free energy for all? NO THEY DONT remember they already have cures for AIDS and CANCER yet if they released it BIG PHARMA would be outta business.
This will have very little impact, the green movement is no longer about climate change or saving the environment... it's about money now. It's a trillion dollar business at this point.
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
3 billion dollar white elephant 😂
"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."
The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand 😎
Not even close. Did you watch the video? When the contribution of the laser energy is included it was roughly 302 units input, 3 units output. And it was not self sustaining. Some breakthrough.
@@outdoor07 I was talking about myself. But the power is too great to share with the world 😎
2:58 this is the most important thing said in the entire video.
The primary goal of the National Ignition Facility was not to work toward controlled fusion for energy production, but rather to advance the science around nuclear weapons and their maintenance. It's the start-ups that are working toward commercial fusion energy production.
Scientists vs engineers
$6 billion and 60 years is crazy for a weapon. Private companies will have this figured out in a decade.
Yep. Not a fusion energy experiment but a military laser one. Nuclear power is just the almost-but-not-quite-a-lie used to get billion-dollar investors on board.
That's such fascinating news, especially now that nuclear energy is a big topic. And that's interesting that you guys approached one of the points that we talked about in our last production about nuclear power. Our team researched the topic since many people think that's the answer to the current energy crisis, and we found several reasons why using it as a solution is much more complicated than we think.
proving that fusion is even possible, is a gigantic milestone!
Its always been possible, check out the sun, of course I do know what you are getting at, if you want to get a good one on most people just ask" what is the closest star to the earth" Peace.
@@kevinmccune9324 You'll be hard pressed finding a person in Europe not knowing our closest star is our sun :P
@@H2ydrogen Try America, we are in the midst of a (Woke) and people trying to figure out their gender epidemic( Ye Gads!)
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)
so amazing and by far the greatest achievement in over 30 years.
Why 30 years??
As a long time fan of Sixty Minutes I was impressed by their caution at hyping this breaktrough yet still thought they needed to tune it down a bit more. This was clearly an engineering accomplishment as the physics was resolved many decades ago. At about 13 minutes into the broadcast the door was opened.
-They manage about 1 "shot" per day, only one of which has actually released more energy than it consumed. Many more failed
-The energy gain" they achieved was three units out per one unit in at the target. That didn't account for the 300 units of energy that went into firing the lasers so the ACTUAL output was 300 in, three out.
-They would need to fire ten shots per second contiuously to generate a meaningful amount of power.
So, yes, they were able to show that the fusion reaction released more energy than the laser energy input but the did not show a net energy gain. That means that they do not have the equivalent situation of the Wright flier. That was a machine demonstrating all of the fundamental design elements of a WW1 airplane, needing only refinement. A closer example might be that they have got the menu for making gunpowder (1300 AD in China) and what we need is a Saturn 5 moon rocket (1969 at the moon) to build a first fusion power plant.
Not in my lifetime, not in yours either.
It isn't a fusion breakthrough. This is a military facility. Fusion is just the deception to get the funding to produce a more powerful defense laser. They practically admit this on their website for Jiminy's sake. It's like how clean energy requires dirty energy to operate and mine and produce.
You are not accounting for how fast technology is evolving since the industrial revolution, we went from achieving major human milestones in thousands or hundreds of years to decades or even years and if technology like AI keeps evolving and getting better, the technology generational gaps can continue to get shorter and humanity can achiver greater goals at a faster pace than anyone ever thought possible.
Gun powder was invented in the 9th century.
@@Tikolico Well, the easy things are always done first but at some point every technology matures and real gains slow and then stop. Rocket technology has had major investment over the past 50 years yet the boosters being built today are not significntly more sophisticated than the Saturn 5 from the 1960s.The technology is mature. Computers? My new desktop is faster than my original 1982 computer and does more stuff but it's not really any better than the previous one from five years ago. What has gained is the density of advertising and spam attacks.
informational and very interesting video, glad there are hard working and talented people trying to make the world a better place :)
Fusion involves turning some protons into neutrons, releasing positrons and extra neutrons, which will inevitably destroy the containment.
INEVITABLY
Ok ,now we have to wait 100 years for this to work.
This could change the world.
For better or worse
Sure but smart countries are building coal fired powered plans from China to Poland. One mine just about to open in Germany. People need energy and nobody cares about global warning in reality.
Nah humans would find a way to put money over morals.
No where near competing with indirect fusion and probably never will be. But it could be useful for eventual deep space exploration.
Or just illusion or hyperbolic "science"... 😂😂😂
If you read up on this, it wasn’t a pure 2 units of inputted energy to yield 3 units. They are neglecting some of the input to state that the reaction was a net positive reaction.
Incredible achievement and noteworthy. But it’s the equivalent of when Elon announced Tesla’s autopilot. This technology is nowhere near where scientists assumed it would be two decades ago.
Exactly right. There are many MANY very high hurdles yet to cross, not the least of which is finding fuel. The dumbed down "hydrogen is everywhere in the ocean!" argument doesn't cut it since the normal and plentiful variety of hydrogen doesn't work. We might have this technology (if we keep pouring vast mountains of money at it) by 2050, but I have grave doubts that it will be on time. We are wreaking havoc on our planet in the meantime and the havoc is placing those big budgets at risk.
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...
Humanity should be more humble. Thinking we can create almost free energy is a fools errand. We cannot duplicate what the sun is.
This story smacks of NIF's need to secure a new round of funding.
The biggest hurdle was made! They achieved more energy than they put in! Now producing it regularly is the next goal! Bravo 👏❤️💪🧑🔬
3:07
Close but.. sadly no. The energy required to use the laser which then fired the energy to create the reaction was over 100 times as many megajoules as was produced. If we could fire lasers for zero energy cost then this would be a breakthrough. As it stands this is just the answer to the fact billion dollar donators are realizing tritium will run out around 2040 and the only real hope to make more via tritium breeding blankets won't even be tested until 2035 in the ITER reactor.
@@gmork1090 Unless you yourself are an actual scientist, you don't know what you're talking about! The scientists in this interview are not saying what you're saying!
I'm sure in 10 years they'll be much better at this than they are now!
@@dereckguilfoyle1219 Are you a scientist?
I'm sure they are aware of all they need to know about their experiments! This all will play out over years to come!
Did you even watch the video? The woman SAYS the power required to fire the lasers was 300 units, they only produced 3. th-cam.com/video/2kh6Ik4-yag/w-d-xo.html Do I have to be a scientist to understand they are being misleading by saying 2 units in 3 out, when its actually 302 units in 3 units out?
@@steakbbq Believe what you want! The scientists say they've achieved something that's never been done before in human history! That's Facts!