US lab hits fusion milestone raising hopes for clean power
WASHINGTON: US scientists on Tuesday revealed a breakthrough on fusion energy that could one day help curb climate change if companies can scale up the Technology to a commercial level in the coming decades. Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California on Dec. 5 for the first time briefly achieved a net energy gain in a fusion experiment using lasers, the US Energy Department said. The scientists focused a laser on a target of fuel to fuse two light atoms into a denser one, releasing the energy. Kimberly Budil, the director of Lawrence Livermore, told reporters at an Energy Department event that Science and Technology hurdles mean commercialization is probably not five or six decades away, but sooner. "With concerted effort and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant," Budil said. Scientists have known for about a century that fusion powers the sun and have pu...