Australian fusion firm HB11 wants US energy breakthrough to kickstart clean power revolution

US scientists have reproduced the power of the sun in an historic nuclear experiment – and an Australian business now wants to help lead the energy revolution.

The power of the sun and the stars has been reproduced in an American laboratory, a breakthrough decades in the making for the “holy grail” of unlimited clean energy.

For the first time, scientists have conducted a fusion experiment – fusing atoms to create a nuclear reaction – that produced more energy than it took to start the reaction.

Australia could now be at the forefront of the fusion revolution, with one of the pioneers of the technology launching a new coalition of industry leaders in a bid to build a domestic laser facility.

The US government revealed on Wednesday (AEST) that the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had pulled off the feat pursued by physicists for more than half a century.

At the $5bn National Ignition Facility last week, 192 lasers bombarded a lump of hydrogen in a capsule the size of a peppercorn, heating it to more than three million degrees.

On Dec. 5, 2022, a team at LLNL's @lasers_llnl conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to achieve fusion ignition. Also known as scientific energy breakeven, the experiment produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. pic.twitter.com/t9htICEcuh

— Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (@Livermore_Lab) December 13, 2022

The resulting fusion reaction turned 2.05 megajoules of energy that was delivered to the target into 3.15 megajoules – the first time such a net gain had been achieved.

“The pursuit of fusion ignition in the laboratory is one of the most significant scientific challenges ever tackled by humanity, and achieving it is a triumph of science, engineering, and most of all, people,” lab director Dr Kim Budil said.

Australian laser fusion company HB11 Energy’s managing director Dr Warren McKenzie said it was “as significant to the global energy industry as the first moon landing was for the space industry”.

A fusion reaction emits no carbon and produces no dangerous radioactive waste – unlike existing nuclear power plants which split uranium atoms – meaning it has long held potential to provide limitless clean power.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories director Dr Kim Budil announcing the fusion breakthrough. Picture: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)

US National Nuclear Security Administration chief Jill Hruby said the breakthrough was “redefining the boundaries of what’s possible” and would go down in history as “the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionise the world”.

Dr Budil cautioned it would likely take several decades before the breakthrough could be replicated at scale and commercialised to power people’s homes.

But Dr McKenzie said the “holy grail” moment would “put a rocket under a new industry of high-power lasers and inspire billions to be invested in laser fusion technology”.

HB11 Energy managing director Dr Warren McKenzie. Picture: Supplied

He co-founded HB11 with Professor Heinrich Hora, a physicist who predicted laser fusion would be viable back in the 1970s.

Their new coalition – including engineering giant Thales Group, Japan’s first laser fusion company EX-Fusion and other industry heavyweights – wants to develop Australia’s version of the National Ignition Facility.