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Editorial Briefing
2016 North Korea nuclear test

Jan 2016

2016 North Korea nuclear test

A magnitude 5.1 nuclear test was detected 376 km (234 mi) NE of Pyongyang, North Korea (DPRK) on January 6, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. local time (01:30 UTC), according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The event was picked up at seismic stations around the world. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) said that the explosion occurred in roughly the same area as North Korea’s previous nuclear test on February 12, 2013. See also: Nuclear explosion; Nuclear testing; Seismographic instrumentation

Editorial Briefing
First nuclear fusion ignition event produced in a laboratory

Feb 2023

First nuclear fusion ignition event produced in a laboratory

Since 2010, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California have sought to harness fusion, a physical process that releases energy from nuclear reactions. Nuclear fusion is the natural process that powers the Sun and other stars. Initially discovered in the 1930s, physicists have attempted to harness this process for controlled energy production ever since. Until recently, those attempts failed because more energy was required to power the reaction than was produced. However, on December 5, 2022, NIF scientists reported the first fusion reaction in a laboratory setting that produced more energy than the laser energy required to power the reaction. While there are still many hurdles to overcome, researchers are cautiously optimistic that this breakthrough could eventually lead to carbon-free fusion power plants that would aid in the fight against global climate change. In the meantime, the findings will advance NIF's research goal of helping assess the reliability and safety of the United States' nuclear weapons stockpile. See also: Energy; Global climate change; Nuclear fusion

Editorial Briefing
Harnessing the power of nuclear fusion in tokamak reactors

Feb 2019

Harnessing the power of nuclear fusion in tokamak reactors

Progress continues in the attempt to master nuclear fusion—the phenomenon that powers the stars, including our Sun—for energy production here on Earth. Recent research has identified a previously unknown kind of heat burst that causes reaction-killing instabilities inside experimental fusion machines, called tokamaks. These doughnut-shaped vessels contain and sustain the controlled fusion reaction, using magnetic fields to trap and guide superheated hydrogen. On Earth, nuclear fusion requires heating hydrogen up to approximately 100 million Kelvin (100 million degrees Celsius or 180 million degrees Fahrenheit), thus converting it into a state of matter called plasma. Within this superheated plasma, atoms can start to fuse together into heavier atoms, releasing energy in the process. See also: Atom; Atomic nucleus; Atomic physics; Earth; Electricity; Energy; Energy sources; Gas; Hydrogen; Magnetic confinement fusion; Matter (physics); Nuclear fusion; Nuclear physics; Nuclear reaction; Plasma (physics); Star; Sun; Temperature; Thermonuclear reaction

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