Scientists may have finally stumbled upon something big, clean and limitless energy stemming from a fusion reaction that could create net energy gain for the first time.
There is the growing belief that this breakthrough will be revealed at some point, a major scientific development from the United States Department of Energy. It was made recently at the government-funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California according to sources in a report by the Washington Post.
The net gain is considered a holy grail of zero-carbon power, considered a major step towards being able to create a technology one day that could offer a clean and virtually limitless supply of energy.
The results of the fusion experiment is something that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm may announced at a media event set for Tuesday, Dec. 13.
Additionally, a lab official claims that researchers were still finalizing their findings and that nothing would be confirmed until the scheduled event. The energy department also did not comment on the matter.
Since 1950, scientists have been trying to replicate the same nuclear reaction that powers the sun as part of the global quest to offer clean energy and combat climate change. To date, researchers have not gotten close of producing more energy from the fusion reaction that it consumes.
“To most of us, this was only a matter of time,” according to one of the unnamed senior scientists about the experiment.
The science of nuclear fusion is based on pressing hydrogen atoms so close to each other that they combine into helium — and then release torrents of energy.
Although the anticipation is high that the breakthrough will be announced soon, scientists believe that fusion power stations are still at least a decade away from being used commercially, the Post reported.
The Biden administration has prioritized fusion energy research projects and dedicated tens of billions of dollars through the Inflation Reduction Act.
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