(AGENPARL) – ven 12 aprile 2024 A weekly compendium of media reports on science and technology achievements
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Though the Laboratory reviews
items for overall accuracy, the reporting organizations are responsible for
the content in the links below.
….. LLNL Report, April 12, 2024
To create fusion ignition, the National Ignition Facility’s laser energy is
converted into X-rays inside the hohlraum, which then compress a fuel capsule
until it implodes, creating a high temperature, high pressure plasma.
… Fusion is here and now
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2024/04/08/nuclear-fusion-is-not-a-moonshot-but-an-attainable-goal/?sh=1c3ee5b6494f
Physicists may remember Dec. 5, 2022, as the day nuclear fusion got its legs
and walked for the first time. That’s when Lawrence Livermore’s National
Ignition Facility (NIF) produced more energy than it used to drive a fusion
reactor — the first time in more than 50 years of research. Since then, it
has happened four more times.
Many energy experts consider nuclear fusion the North Star — a way to
generate cleaner and more affordable electricity than fossil fuels without
creating long-term nuclear waste. Right now, major corporations, including
Microsoft, Chevron and Shell, are sending billions of dollars into the field.
While success is in sight, other specialists caution against creating too
much hype.
“Although there are enormous science and engineering challenges still to
overcome, the breakthroughs and the progress have been steady,” said Tammy
Ma, lead scientist for the Inertial Fusion Energy Initiative at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, during the United States Energy
Association’s virtual press briefing..**
NIF produced more energy than it put in, which “means the plasma is feeding
back on itself and generating more energy. So we are fundamentally in a
different place than we were before,” she said. “We recently repeated
ignition four more times since December of 2022, and our most recent shot was
more than twice as much energy out as went in. That gives you a sense of the
progress we’re making. But to be clear, there’s still much more to do.”
Read More
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2024/04/08/nuclear-fusion-is-not-a-moonshot-but-an-attainable-goal/?sh=1c3ee5b6494f
The LSST Camera team successfully installed the cryostat to the camera body
on 8 April 2022 – Photo by Travis Lange/SLAC National Accelerator
Laboratory..
… Eye spy the universe
https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/most-powerful-camera-finished-space-deepest-mysteries
Work on the most powerful camera ever built has been completed.
The 3,200-megapixel Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera (LSST) is the size
of a small car and weighs around 3,000 kilograms. The camera will soon be
installed into the newly-completed Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile, and
over the next 10 years will start to build an amazingly detailed image of the
Southern Hemisphere sky.
Also involved with the construction of the camera were Brookhaven National
Laboratory, which built the camera’s digital sensor array, Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, which designed and built lenses for the camera
and the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the National
Center for Scientific Research in France.
“With the completion of the unique LSST Camera at SLAC and its imminent
integration with the rest of Rubin Observatory systems in Chile, we will soon
start producing the greatest movie of all time and the most informative map
of the night sky ever assembled,” said Director of Rubin Observatory
Construction and University of Washington professor Željko Ivezi?.
Read More
https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/most-powerful-camera-finished-space-deepest-mysteries
Europium, a rare earth element that has the same relative hardness of lead,
is critical to the clean energy economy. Image by LLNL.
… It’s critically important

DOE Invests $75M to Strengthen Critical Minerals Supply Chain for US

As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the Department of
Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management have awarded $75
million for a project to develop a Critical Minerals Supply Chain Research
Facility.
The project, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will strengthen
domestic supply chains, help to meet the growing demand for critical minerals
and materials and reduce reliance on unreliable foreign sources. The project
also supports President Biden’s Executive Order 14017, which has made it a
policy of the United States to have resilient, diverse and secure critical
mineral and material supply chains. These supply chains are central for U.S.
energy security, economic prosperity and national security, as they underpin
many clean energy technologies, vital manufacturing processes and several key
defense applications.
The project selected to support the development of a Critical Materials
Supply Chain Research Facility will establish a nationwide foundational
capability to address critical minerals and materials supply chain
challenges. The National Energy Technology Laboratory will lead the Minerals
to Materials Supply Chain Facility (METALLIC) project, which includes
participation from eight other DOE national laboratories — Ames National
Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Read More

DOE Invests $75M to Strengthen Critical Minerals Supply Chain for US

Simon Pang (left) and Buddhinie Jayathilake assemble and prepare a prototype
bubble column electrobioreactor to test additively manufactured
three-dimensional electrodes. Under their project, excess renewable
electricity from wind and solar sources would be stored in chemical bonds as
renewable natural gas.. Photo by Nathan Ellebracht/LLNL.
… Energy storage hits the gas
https://www.independentnews.com/news/livermore_news/renewable-natural-gas-to-help-grid-stability-storage/article_a64975e4-f205-11ee-9029-d740fe5d10a1.html
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Southern California Gas
Company and the technology firm Electrochaea have partnered on a plan to add
grid-scale storage in the form of synthetic natural gas.
The idea is to create a bioreactor that would transform excess solar- and
wind-generated electricity and biogas — methane generated from waste
products — into renewable natural gas (RNG).
While spikes in power usage have led to power outages in recent summers,
instances of too much renewable power also have strained the power grid. Such
scenarios force grid operators to curtail renewable generation to avoid
damage to the grid.
More than 1.5 million megawatt hours of renewable electricity were curtailed
in California in 2020, effectively throwing away enough energy to power
100,000 homes for a year because the grid lacks suitable storage mechanisms
to hold onto surplus energy for later use, according to LLNL.
Simon Pang, a materials scientist at LLNL’s Materials Science Division,
will head the two-year, $2 million project. He said the hope is to “enable
decarbonization of the natural gas grid.”
Read More
https://www.independentnews.com/news/livermore_news/renewable-natural-gas-to-help-grid-stability-storage/article_a64975e4-f205-11ee-9029-d740fe5d10a1.html
Supercomputer simulations predicting the synthesis pathways for the elusive
BC8 “super-diamond”, involving shock compressions of diamond precursor,
inspire ongoing Discovery Science experiments at NIF. Image by Mark
Meamber/LLNL.
… Super diamond is one tough nut
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/elusive-form-of-carbon-tougher-than-diamonds-created-in-supercomputer-simulation-for-1st-time-ever
Scientists have simulated an elusive, superstrong form of carbon, dubbed
“super-diamond,” that may be tougher than diamonds, the hardest known
material. But observing the real thing might require a trip far outside our
solar system, to the center of an exoplanet — a feat that’s not likely
anytime soon, or possibly ever.
BC8, as the superstrong carbon is known, is an eight-atom crystal that would
be 30% more resistant to compression than diamonds, according to a new study
by Lawrence Livermore and collaborators. Scientists have been trying to
synthesize this crystal in the lab, without success. The new simulation
reveals that the material can be made only in a narrow range of pressures and
temperatures, which might make that synthesis possible in the future,
researchers said.
The research also helps reveal what might be at the hearts of carbon-rich
exoplanets, which are predicted to have just the right conditions for the
formation of BC8.
Armed with their new knowledge of BC8’s formation pathways and stability,
the researchers are making new attempts to synthesize the material at LLNL’s
National Ignition Facility. These types of methods involve shocking diamonds
twice at upward of 45,000 mph and then compressing them under enormous
pressures.
Read More
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/elusive-form-of-carbon-tougher-than-diamonds-created-in-supercomputer-simulation-for-1st-time-ever
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