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In December 2022, researchers at the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) made a breakthrough in the field of nuclear fusion by achieving a phenomenon known as ignition.
How was this achieved, and what does this mean for the future of clean energy initiatives?
NIF’s Achievements
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which houses NIF, are the first in the world to achieve ignition, which describes a positive energy gain made via a nuclear fusion reaction.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear fusion describes “the process by which two light atomic nuclei are combined to form a single…