Laser fusion – the safe, clean way to produce nuclear energy

A multinational project led by British researchers aims to use a high-power laser to reproduce the physical reaction that occurs at the heart of the sun and every other star in the universe – nuclear fusion. If the project succeeds it has the potential to solve the world energy crisis without destroying the environment.

The scientists admit that a commercial reactor is a long way off, but they believe the laser approach to producing fusion shows great promise. The EU is considering a proposal to fund the set-up costs for a seven-year research project called HiPER – high powered laser energy research – that would build a working demonstration reactor. Preparing for the seven-year project alone, which is a collaboration of 11 nations, is expected to cost over €50m (
The British-led project, which has been earmarked by the EU as a priority, is designed to leapfrog an American-funded project called the National Ignition Facility (Nif) in Livermore, California. When that is built in 2010, physicists are confident that the Nif laser will be powerful enough to start a fusion reaction. Experiments in the Nevada desert in the 1980s with underground explosions of nuclear weapons have already shown how much energy they will need to deliver with the laser.

Mike Dunne, director of the Central Laser Facility at a publicly funded research site in Oxfordshire that houses Vulcan, the most powerful laser in the world, said: “The world is going to take notice when this happens. Politicians are going to look around and say, ‘So what are you going to do about it? What’s the next step?’. This is how to take it from a scientific demonstration to a commercial reality.”

Prof Dunne said that many of the details of the nuclear tests were still classified, “but the only thing that matters to us as a bunch of energy scientists is that it does work. The trick now is, can we get it to work without throwing a nuclear bomb at the thing?” That is what Nif is designed to do.

Guardian