SRarely do research results attract as much attention as those presented at a press conference on Tuesday: At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, a small capsule of frozen hydrogen was heated and compressed using laser energy to such an extent that nuclear fusion occurred and, according to the institute, more energy for the first time released than used. It is one of the most impressive scientific achievements of the century, said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm: It will help “solve mankind’s most complex and urgent problems, such as providing clean energy to combat climate change”, progress has “the future of science and… changed mankind”.
It was “a historic day for the energy supply of the future,” said Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) in a prepared statement. Many media took up the subject prominently, including the FAZ. However, there was often hardly any mention that the announced “breakthrough” was progress, but not yet a revolution. Something similar had already been achieved last year with a somewhat lower energy yield, which has now probably improved thanks to a slightly different experimental setup. The ministry announcements also failed to mention that this time more than a hundred times the energy had to be used for the lasers.
Inventing and getting in instead of prohibiting and getting out?
Many reports only touched on this in passing. “We want to start our show with positive news: a scientific genius that could solve nothing less than our energy question,” explained “Tagesthemen” moderator Helge Fuhst – “albeit in the distant future,” he pushed afterwards. “This means that a new building block will be available in the future for a climate-neutral, reliable and economical energy supply,” said Stark-Watzinger. “We’re starting with a historic achievement that generations of researchers have pondered over,” says moderator Christian Sievers in the “Heute Journal”; he quoted US Congressman Don Beyer as saying that fusion could possibly lift more people out of poverty than the invention of fire. There will be rapid progress with the merger, and it may be possible to use it in ten years, Stark-Watzinger explained on the show. And: “We are open to technology – as it shows that we are open to technology and can tackle the major challenges with innovation.”
In 1999, the target chamber of the Californian fusion experiment was inserted into the huge facility.
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Bild: Lawrence Livermore National Labo
At the latest with these formulations, the alarm bells should be ringing for many – because technical approaches are regularly presented as an easy way out of the world’s problems. “We want to focus on technology and innovation and not on sacrifice,” said Stark-Watzinger at the beginning of 2022 – “we need more joy in inventing and getting in than in banning and getting out,” wrote FDP leader Christian Lindner on Twitter on Tuesday. The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the breakthrough was a step towards a “climate-proof future”. So far it is completely open whether fusion will become commercially viable on a large scale. “I would be more impressed with an announcement that the United States would end fossil fuel subsidies,” US climatologist Michael Mann wrote on Twitter. “It is not yet available and cannot help us with the climate crisis now,” said fusion expert Aneeqa Khan from the University of Manchester – with further progress maybe in decades.
It also largely went unnoticed that there are other research goals that Minister Granholm raised prominently: “It strengthens national security because it opens a new area for maintaining a secure and effective nuclear deterrent in an age when there is none.” The breakthrough will “change forever the future of clean energy and America’s national defense,” her ministry said. Because the fusion research institute subordinate to this is also responsible for research on atomic bombs.