Plans for a laser fusion plant
The first ever fusion plant that uses lasers is planned by Longview Fusion Energy Systems, USA.
Longview is capitalising on the first demonstration of energy breakeven at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
According to the company the Longview team led the successful delivery of the NIF fusion facility and has partnered with industry, utilities, academia, national laboratories and strategic investors over the past 18 months to design a power plant.
The NIF, apparently the world's most energetic laser, squeezes together hydrogen so that it is 100 times denser than lead at 100 million ºC.
Longview aims to use modern efficient lasers with a patented design to replicate these conditions several hundred times a minute.
US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm says, 'We need the private sector to get in the game... [President Biden] has a decadal vision to a commercial fusion reactor within 10 years, so we've got to get to work...'
