Graduate Student Seminar with Nic Dronchi on Clearing Up Any Con-Fusion on the Recent Announcement of Ignition

On Dec. 13th, the U.S. Department of Energy (along with the National Nuclear Security Administration) announced the achievement of fusion ignition at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This recent announcement made it all over the news and was an important story of scientific progress. President Biden even announced a vision to get a commercial fusion reactor within 10 years. Is unlimited clean fusion energy possible? Well… In this talk we will learn all about nuclear fusion and what the announcement actually entails. We will virtually go visit the National Ignition Facility, NIF, and see some big lasers. Then unfortunately, we may drift into the realm of grumpy old man complaints and see what’s holding us back from solving the real issue of climate change.