Speaker 1: A team at Lawrence Livermore National Lab National Ignition Facility made the following happen. There's a tiny cylinder here at the end of this that you probably can't see. It's about so tall and this wide inside that was a, a small spherical capsule. About half the diameter of a BB 192 laser beams entered from the two ends of the cylinder and struck the inner wall. They didn't strike the capsule. They struck the inner wall of this cylinder [00:00:30] and deposited energy, and that happened in less time than it takes light to move 10 feet. So it's kind of fast. X-rays from the wall impinged on the spherical capsule fusion fuel in the capsule got squeezed Fusion reactions started. This had all happened before a hundred times before, but last week for the first time, they designed this experiment so that the fusion fuel stayed hot [00:01:00] enough, dense enough, and round enough for long enough that it ignited and it produced more energies than the lasers had deposited About two megajoules in about three megajoules out again of 1.5. The energy production took less time than it takes light to travel one inch kind of fast. So this is pretty cool. Um, I have a special message to listeners who want to work on [00:01:30] exciting, challenging, and important problems we're hiring.
Speaker 1: So fusion Fusion is an essential process in modern nuclear weapons, and fusion also has the potential for abundant clean energy, as you have heard and we'll hear more. The breakthrough at N [00:02:00] does have ramifications for clean energy. More immediately. This achievement will advance our national security in at least three ways. First, it will lead to laboratory experiments that help N N S A defense programs continue to maintain confidence in our deterrent without nuclear explosive testing. Second, it underpins the credibility of our deterrent by demonstrating [00:02:30] world leading expertise in weapons, weapons, relevant technologies. That is, we know what we're doing. Third, continuing to assure our allies that we know what we're doing and continuing to avoid testing will advance our non-proliferation goals. Also increasing our national security. The achievement we celebrate today illustrates that big important accomplishments often take longer and require more effort than originally thought, [00:03:00] and that these accomplishments are often more than worth that time and effort that they took.
