AAAS – It’s Too Early to Pick a Winner on Inertial Fusion Energy, Says Study
American Association for the Advancement of Science – It’s Too Early to Pick a Winner on Inertial Fusion Energy, Says Study
By Daniel Clery | 7 March 2012 – 2:00 PM
Despite proposed cuts to the U.S. magnetic fusion program, a new report advocates a parallel effort to pursue fusion energy using the rival inertial confinement scheme. The report, by the National Academies’ National Research Council, says that it is too early to pick a winning technology and focus funding on that approach. That conclusion will please many scientists in the field who have been concerned that the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—the world’s largest and most advanced inertial fusion facility—was poised to dominate the U.S. research effort.
The NRC committee was convened at the request of Steven Koonin, who last fall stepped down as the Department of Energy’s (DOE) undersecretary for science. NIF officials say that they are closing in on achieving “ignition”—a self-sustaining fusion reaction that generates at least as much energy as it consumes. Such a breakthrough would show that inertial fusion, at least in principle, is a possibility for future power stations. With that in mind, Koonin asked NRC to suggest DOE’s next steps on the road to a demonstrator power reactor, including a road map of technology development. Today’s release is an interim report from the committee.
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