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US Scientists Announce Major Advance in Fusion Development

时间:2022-12-15 02:43:13

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US Scientists Announce Major Advance in Fusion1 Development

American scientists have announced a "major scientific breakthrough" in the long-sought search for a way to use nuclear fusion to produce energy.

The announcement came Tuesday during a briefing by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and other officials in Washington, D.C. Granholm said that, for the first time, a fusion reaction experiment had produced more energy than was required to ignite it.

Scientists describe such a result as "net energy gain." This state has until now been an unreachable goal for the scientists because fusion happens at extremely high temperatures and pressures. This makes the process very difficult to control.

The new result came last week during an experiment carried out by government scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The lab is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Fusion happens when the nuclei2 of two atoms are subjected to extreme heat. This leads to the formation of a new, larger atom and the release of energy. Fusion is the process that fuels stars, including the sun.

Scientists have long understood how nuclear fusion works. Many have tried to repeat the process on Earth. The current efforts centered on fusing a pair of hydrogen isotopes3 — deuterium and tritium. The Department of Energy says that the combination releases "much more energy than most fusion reactions." It also requires less heat to do so.

Some experts have suggested that fusion energy could one day be used to provide limitless, pollution-free power.

Granholm and other officials said Tuesday that the latest result is a major step forward in helping4 to create a future source for clean power generation. However, they said commercialization of the technology will likely take many years to be fully5 developed.

Granholm said the department's ignition success permits scientists for the first time to copy "certain conditions that are found only in the stars and the sun." She added that the result is a major step toward "the possibility of zero-carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society."

The experiments involved aiming nearly 200 lasers at a small capsule that contained fuel. When the lasers ignited the fuel, two lighter6 atoms were joined together to create a denser7 one. This process produced more energy than was required to ignite it, the scientists said.

The experiment briefly8 reached "fusion ignition" by generating 3.15 megajoules of energy output. This was after the laser targeting the capsule used 2.05 megajoules of energy, the Energy Department said. A megajoule is a measurement for energy output.

Nuclear scientists not involved in the latest result praised the success as a major breakthrough. But they noted9 there is much more science to be done before fusion can develop into a profitable industry.

Riccardo Betti is a professor at New York's University of Rochester and an expert in laser fusion. He compared the latest result to when humans first learned that refining oil into gasoline and igniting it could produce an explosion.

"You still don't have the engine, and you still don't have the tires," Betti said. "You can't say that you have a car."

Tony Roulstone is a nuclear energy expert at the University of Cambridge in Britain. He told Reuters news agency that while interesting, the latest experiment still leaves scientists a long way from turning the process into useful, limitless energy.

Roulstone said that in order to become commercially successful, a power plant would have to produce enough energy to also power the laser equipment and generate a continuous ignition process.

Words in This Story

breakthrough – n. an important discovery

generate – v. to produce energy

ignite – v. to make something start to burn

commercialize – v. to organize something to make a profit

decade – n. a period of 10 years

milestone10 – n. an important event in the develop or history of something

abundant – adj. more than enough

capsule – n. a small container

refine – v. to make a substance pure by removing unwanted material


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1 fusion HfDz5     
n.溶化;熔解;熔化状态,熔和;熔接
参考例句:
  • Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc. 黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
  • This alloy is formed by the fusion of two types of metal.这种合金是用两种金属熔合而成的。
2 nuclei tHCxF     
n.核
参考例句:
  • To free electrons, something has to make them whirl fast enough to break away from their nuclei. 为了释放电子,必须使电子高速旋转而足以摆脱原子核的束缚。
  • Energy is released by the fission of atomic nuclei. 能量是由原子核分裂释放出来的。
3 isotopes 92848c3160703e48dc3b552ac6f54115     
n.同位素;同位素( isotope的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • the many isotopes of carbon 碳的诸多同位素
  • Tritium is one of the mildest radioactive isotopes. 氚是最和缓的放射性同位素之一。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
5 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
6 lighter 5pPzPR     
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级
参考例句:
  • The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色,色调明朗了一些。
  • The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。
7 denser denser     
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的
参考例句:
  • The denser population necessitates closer consolidation both for internal and external action. 住得日益稠密的居民,对内和对外都不得不更紧密地团结起来。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
  • As Tito entered the neighbourhood of San Martino, he found the throng rather denser. 蒂托走近圣马丁教堂附近一带时,发现人群相当密集。
8 briefly 9Styo     
adv.简单地,简短地
参考例句:
  • I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
  • He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。
9 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
10 milestone c78zM     
n.里程碑;划时代的事件
参考例句:
  • The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
  • I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

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