In the News (2014)

2014

December 12, 2014
Top 10 physics breakthroughs listed
Scientists at the National Ignition Facility in California made a breakthrough in the long road to self-sustaining fusion when they managed to get more energy out of fusion reactions than was deposited in the fuel by NIF’s powerful laser. (BBC)

October 2, 2014
Megatelescope snaps up former fusion boss
Edward Moses joins the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) today as its first president, after stepping down as a scientific manager at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (physicsworld.com)

October 1, 2014
Why science geeks need storage scaling, too
In an interview for theCUBE at Oracle OpenWorld this week, CIO of the National Ignition Facility Tim Frazier explained why the organization would’ve been held back if it didn’t have the ability to economically scale up storage and compute by virtualization. (Video) (SiliconANGLE)

September 29, 2014
Fusion Will Be A Huge Clean-Energy Breakthrough, Says National Ignition Facility CIO
When it comes to scientific research, sometimes the biggest obstacle of them all is time. (Includes Video) (Forbes Brandvoice)

September 26, 2014
Researchers build device to concentrate, purify and analyze the debris for radioactive gas products
The Radiochemical Analysis of Gaseous Samples (RAGS) is a true trash to treasure story, turning debris from the National Ignition Facility’s target chamber into valuable data that helps to shape future experiments. (phys.org)

September 2014
From lasers to galaxies: A Q&A with Edward Moses
The Livermore veteran is the new president of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization. (Physics Today)

August 19, 2014
Journey to the Center of Jupiter
Creating Fantastic Pressure With the World’s Largest Lasers (Audio) (The Planetary Society)

August 18, 2014
NIF director Dunne hails ‘spectacular’ progress
Major steps taken towards generation of gigawatt-scale clean power at giant laser facility. (optics.org)

July 16, 2014
High-pressure physics: Piling on the Pressure
The machine that houses the world’s largest laser, and which stands in for the starship Enterprise’s warp core in the film “Star Trek Into Darkness,” has compressed diamond to the density of lead. (Nature)

June
More Basic Research at the National Ignition Facility
Recent changes at the nation’s top large laser facility are making it easier for scientists to do basic research there. Though still primarily focused on fusion and nuclear weapons research, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is becoming more of a user facility. (APS News)

May 7, 2014
Back to the future: are we about to crack energy fusion?
Limitless renewable energy from nuclear fusion has been “30 years away” for several decades, but now experts believe they’re finally closing in on a self-sustaining reaction. (The Guardian)

May 6, 2014
Northern Lights’ Physics Could Aid in Nuclear Fusion
The aurora is more than just a breathtaking display of light. It may also hold the secret of a magnetic phenomenon related to the nuclear fusion powering the sun. This secret could even help create nuclear fusion in the lab, says a team of researchers. (livescience)

April 14, 2014
How I Give Back Time — To Science
When it comes to scientific research, sometimes the biggest obstacle of them all is time. (Forbes)

April 8, 2014
Has Fusion Finally Solved Its Hype Problem?
Omar Hurricane studies nuclear fusion at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif. In February Hurricane’s lab took the biggest step toward fusion energy yet. (Popular Mechanics)

March 17, 2014
Shine On, Tiny Little Star
National Ignition Facility researchers recently achieved a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion, which could one day provide extremely clean energy at little cost and no harm to the environment or human life. (Newsweek)

March 17, 2014
Machinery of an Energy Dream
The Challenge: How to Keep Fusion Going Long Enough (Includes Podcast) (The New York Times)

March 4, 2014
Laser bombardment yields energy milestone
For the first time, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California say they produced more energy from a reaction in their fuel source than they put into the fuel. (CNN)

February 22, 2014
Laser Fusion—Is It Back to the Future Yet?
SciShow’s Hank Green remembers “Back to the Future” and tells us about his favorite word combination—lasers and fusion. (Video) (SciShow)

February 15, 2014
Nuclear fusion breakthrough sparks energy optimism
Jeffrey Kluger, Time Magazine editor-at-large, discusses an astonishing breakthrough in nuclear fusion at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and why some might call it energy’s holy grail. (Video) (CBS This Morning)

February 12, 2014
Laser fusion experiment extracts net energy from fuel
Milestone is passed on the long road to fusion energy. (Nature)

February 12, 2014
Nuclear Fusion Just Got a Little Closer to Becoming a Reality
Atomic fusion could produce limitless energy—but scientists haven’t been able to harness it. But a novel experiment suggests it could be achievable. (Time)

February 12, 2014
Quest for pollution-free fusion energy takes major step
What if we could develop an unlimited source of carbon-free energy? Scientists working on one such source, fusion, say they’re making progress but don’t know when they’ll be finished. (USA Today)

February 12, 2014
Scientists Say Their Giant Laser Has Produced Nuclear Fusion
Researchers at a laboratory in California say they’ve had a breakthrough in producing fusion reactions with a giant laser. The success comes after years of struggling to get the laser to work and is another step in the decades-long quest for fusion energy. (Includes Audio) (National Public Radio)

February 12, 2014
Laser Facility Blasts Way to Fusion First
Fusion experiment is at least ten times more powerful than previous events, study says. (National Geographic)

February 12, 2014
Fusion Advance Demonstrates Value of Long-Haul Energy Research
A paper published in Nature this week resoundingly demonstrates the value of sustained research on fusion, describing an important, if still incremental, advance. (Opinion) (The New York Times)

February 12, 2014
Giant Laser Complex Makes Fusion Advance, Finally
A $5 billion laser complex has now achieved a step that revives optimism that thermonuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, can one day be harnessed for almost limitless energy. (The New York Times)

February 12, 2014
High-Powered Lasers Deliver Fusion Energy Breakthrough
A new experiment releases more energy than is pumped into fuel—a major milestone—but a long journey still remains for sustainable energy from fusion. (Scientific American)

February 12, 2014
Nuclear fusion? Laser-wielding physicists find promising hints
Researchers have conducted a landmark experiment, using lasers to create the merest hint of controlled nuclear fusion that produced more energy than was put into the fuel. (Los Angeles Times)

February 12, 2014
Scientists Achieve Bootstrapping, a Fusion Energy Breakthrough
In a major milestone for fusion, the National Ignition Facility sees particles created by the reaction feed energy back into the reaction. (Popular Mechanics)

February 12, 2014
National Ignition Facility Announces Record Amount Of Fusion Energy
Physicists had to compress the fuel to twice the density of the core of the sun. (Popular Science)

February 12, 2014
Laser Fusion Project Takes One Small Step Toward Energy Leap
The latest experiments, reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, marked a first for the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. They’re the first laser shots to produce a net gain in energy under any definition, and they’re also the first to show evidence of a mechanism that’s essential if controlled fusion is ever to become a reality. (NBC News)

February 12, 2014
We’re One Step Closer to Nuclear Fusion Energy
Scientists with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced today that they have achieved a critical step in fusion research: For the first time, their hydrogen fuel has given off more energy than it took in. (Wired)

February 12, 2014
Baby Steps on the Road to Fusion Energy
In a series of experiments late last year, NIF researchers managed to produce energy yields 10 times greater than produced before and to demonstrate the phenomenon of self-heating that will be crucial if fusion is to reach its ultimate goal of “ignition”—a self-sustaining burning reaction that produces more energy than it consumes. (Science)

February 12, 2014
Fusion energy milestone reported by California scientists
Scientists are creeping closer to their goal of creating a controlled fusion-energy reaction by mimicking the interior of the sun inside the hardware of a laboratory. In the latest incremental advance, reported Wednesday online in the journal Nature, scientists in California used 192 lasers to compress a pellet of fuel and generate a reaction in which more energy came out of the fuel core than went into it. (Includes Photo Gallery and Audio) (The Washington Post)

February 11, 2014
LLNL awards contracts for the petawatt laser system for the ELI Beamlines facility
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has awarded two subcontracts for the High Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS), being built for the European Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) Beamlines science facility in the Czech Republic. (Laser Focus World)

January 29, 2014
Behind the scenes tour at the US National Ignition Facility
NIF is arguably one of the most important science experiments on the planet, which, if successful, could permanently solve humanity’s energy woes and alleviate global warming pressures. (Imperial College London)

January 9, 2014
In Focus: The National Ignition Facility
One recent laser experiment set a record for energy return, and has scientists hopeful as they fine-tune the targeting, material, and performance of the instruments. (Photo Gallery) (The Atlantic)