New Energy
Fusion Breakthrough Hits Hurdles as Five Experiments Fail
- After a milestone in December, net energy gain is elusive
- Nuclear fusion harnesses the same energy source as the sun
The US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The US government lab that made a long-awaited breakthrough in fusion energy late last year has run five similar experiments since then without being able to replicate the results.
The milestone came in December as the the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco reported achieving the first fusion reaction that produced more energy than it took to create — a threshold known as ignition. The achievement opened the possibility of power plants one day running on nuclear fusion, the same energy source as the sun.