Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announces a major scientific breakthrough in fusion research that was made at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, during a news conference at the Department of Energy in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-J. Scott Applewhite
WASHINGTON – The fusion ignition breakthrough that has experts hailing a new dawn in the search for clean energy took a lot of help from around the world – including Canada.
Researchers at the University of Alberta have been working for years on theoretical models to interpret the results of laser-plasma interaction experiments.
That’s what scientists in California used to produce a fusion reaction that generated more energy than it took to trigger, a first step toward corralling the process that energizes the sun and other stars.
Wojciech Rozmus, an expert in theoretical plasma physics at U of A, says his team produced some of the modelling that guided the process.
Rozmus, 71, has twice been a visiting professor at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California where the breakthrough was made – once in 1997-98 and again in 2011-12.
In announcing the breakthrough Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm described it as one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2022.
