ALUMNI
ENGINEERING
Fusion Futures
Robert Plummer works for a future where clean energy powers the world.
Robert Plummer
46
RICE MAGA ZINE
SUMMER 202 3
IF YOU’VE SEEN THE MOVIE “Star Trek Into Darkness,” then you may have seen a huge futuristic facility full of intricate systems: the workplace of Robert Plummer ’08. The real-life Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility is where Plummer has spent much of the past 13 years of his professional career. “You should never watch that movie with someone at [our facility],” says Plummer. “We’ll pause it to say, ‘I built that!’ or ‘I know what that is!’” Plummer’s workplace may have been the setting for a science fiction movie, but the work they do there aims to turn fantasy into reality. On Dec. 5, 2022, scientists achieved fusion ignition in a laboratory — producing 50% more energy from fusion than was delivered to the target. “For the first time, humankind has demonstrated net energy gain from nuclear fusion in a controlled
laboratory environment, so it’s huge,” says Plummer. Both fusion and fission yield vast amounts of energy; however, fission produces highly radioactive byproducts when uranium and plutonium are split into smaller atoms, whereas fusion — which powers our sun and other stars — delivers a much cleaner version of energy that is also several times more powerful. The National Ignition Facility’s successful fusion ignition was accomplished in a building the size of three football fields with the world’s largest and most energetic laser system. To create fusion at their facility, a low-energy pulse is amplified on the order of a quadrillion times, creating 192 laser beams that travel to the target chamber, a journey of about 1,500 meters, in about five microseconds. The lasers are then focused on a gold cylinder
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY’S NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY
To create fusion ignition, the National Ignition Facility’s laser energy is converted into X-rays inside the chamber, which then compress a fuel capsule until it implodes, creating a hightemperature, high-pressure plasma.
