Fusion Energy Breakthrough Enabled by SCHOTT Laser and Optical Glass
For over half a century, scientists have tried to recreate the fusion reactions that power the sun. Their challenge has been generating more energy than a fusion reaction itself consumes. For the first time, National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has reached this major milestone, known as net energy gain. NIF’s experiment delivered 2.05MJ of energy to the target, resulting in 3.15MJ of fusion energy output. The result was ignition, as well as modest net energy gain. Scientists believe this technology could one day help generate commercial-scale power.
“Our optics teams are very excited about this achievement. We’ve been working toward this for decades, solving problems that seemed unsolvable. We’re looking forward to continuing to deliver perfect optical glass solutions as part of our commitment to developing clean power solutions,” said Bill James, Head of Research and Development for SCHOTT North America. The company supplies laser glass and optical glass for all relevant parts of NIF’s high energy laser used for its ground breaking research. Besides advanced laser glass, this includes fused silica, BOROFLOAT debris shields, N-BK7 polarizers and turning mirror substrates, blast shields between flashlamps and the laser slabs, and specialty filters.
