Understanding the historical experiment and its impacts on the future of freedom
It was widely reported that scientists at the Lawrence Livermore laboratory managed to produce an energy-generating nuclear fusion reaction—that is, it resulted in more energy than was initially fed into the reaction.
Despite the limitations, the American experiment will go down in history. The countless incremental improvements that will be made in the coming decades, although very important, will always be overshadowed by the “breakthrough” moment.
This is a moment that will be recorded forever, with implications that will cause transformations in society. We can never ignore how technological devices – that is, material conditions – can contribute to shaping society and its political organization.
It is not possible to dissociate, for example, the technological capacity to build ships and the incremental improvement of navigation techniques over previous centuries – which resulted in the period known as Mercantilism. This era produced historical figures such as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus. Not all navigators of the time are remembered, nor the most skilled ones, but only the pioneers, as they are the ones who inhabit the oral culture that are the history classes of school teaching.
The invention of the printing press was another case of technological innovation that contributed a lot to change civilization, because from it there was the diffusion of printed newspapers and pamphlets, which culminated in a decentralization of information (for the parameters of the time), helping to distribute people the ideals of freedom – ideals that ended up resulting in the popular revolts of the 18th century against the tyranny of the absolutist monarchies. Here in Brazil, during this period, there were also numerous decentralized liberal revolts, spread across the entire country, independent of each other, against the central power of the royal family.
For now, we are still living in the energy revolution paradigm of the late 19th century.
The advances of this period included, above all, the generation of electricity on a large scale and the creation of internal combustion engines and electric motors. The efficiency and quality gains that came in the 20th century and that we see today were incremental gains, but no “breakthrough”. In fact, there was a new primary source of energy that made a substantial difference in the 20th century, which was nuclear fission, yet its impact remains limited, well below initial expectations that it would be transformative. We are still heirs to the fossil fuel revolution that is the foundation of our current civilization.
Nuclear fusion renews the hopes that were “lost” with fission. This proved to be problematic because of the ability to cause catastrophes due to the radioactive material that is the raw material for its reaction – characteristics that nuclear fusion does not have. Therefore, in theory, when the technological problem of fusion is fully resolved, there will be no characteristics that prevent it from being widely used.
Will it be that, still in the 21st century, we will finally, in a symbolic way, leave the 19th century? Will we leave the era of fossil fuels and actually enter the era of nuclear energy?
To understand a little of the historic experiment that was carried out and what the impact of such technology will be on the struggle for freedom, a very quick understanding of the basic physics in question is first necessary.
Experience is governed by the so-called Strong Force. Inside the nucleus of atoms are protons and neutrons. Protons have a positive charge and neutrons have no electrical charge. Knowing that similar charges repel each other, how then do protons manage to stick together inside the nucleus? Shouldn't they repel each other?
And they repel each other and with great intensity, because the distance between them is very small.
The nucleus of the atoms only maintains cohesion because the so-called strong force enters the scene, which received this name precisely because of its ability to keep the atoms together despite the intense electrostatic repulsive force produced by the protons. Pointing out that it is a short-range force in physics, that is, it is relevant only to the nucleus of atoms and similar distances.
Thus, the experiment can already be understood. On December 5, 2022, 192 lasers were fired synchronously at a tiny cylinder. This capsule focused the light of the lasers on hydrogen molecules, aiming to heat and press the target uniformly in all directions – that is, in a spherical shape. For a fraction of a second, the temperature exceeded that of the sun's core, promoting the fusion of the nuclei of hydrogen atoms into helium plus the release of energy.
Hydrogen was chosen, as it is the lightest atom that exists and its fusion with another hydrogen generates Helium, which is inert and ideal to produce for safety when you are in such temperature and pressure conditions.
As explained, the proton – which has a positive charge –, inside the nucleus of a hydrogen, naturally repels the proton in the nucleus of the neighboring hydrogen.
Physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, in his StarTalk program, made an analogy to explain the phenomenon. He says it's like rolling a ball up a hill. If you don't give it enough energy, the ball will never reach the top. However, if the person rolls the ball faster and faster, giving it more and more energy, eventually the ball will reach the top. He describes that this happens to the hydrogen protons in their approximation problem. When you increase the temperature, which accelerates everything, they get closer to each other; raise the temperature even more and then they will come closer together, until the moment comes when the protons are close enough for the Strong Force to start operating. Therefore, the high pressure density and high temperature appear to overcome this barrier of electrostatic repulsion between protons. After that, with the entry of the Strong Force, there is then Thermonuclear Fusion.
But why is energy produced in this fusion process?
Neil explains that simultaneously with the explosion in this uniform sphere of high density and high temperature, on the inside there is an implosion; that is, there is mass consumption with the product having less mass than when it started. And with the equation, Energy equal to the mass that multiplies the speed of Light squared, it is observed that the mass that is lost on one side manifests itself as energy on the other. That is, in the reaction, the mass consumed in the system was converted into the energy produced and so celebrated.
In the controlled laboratory conditions, the energy incident by the lasers on the hydrogens was 2.05 megajoules and the energy released at the end was 3.15. An energy gain of 50%, which in percentage terms is a surprising value, in addition to being indisputable evidence that energy was produced in the reaction.
What will improve over the decades is that firing the 2 megajoule lasers required 300 megajoules of electrical energy. Above all, to be commercially viable, in addition to efficiency having to improve, the fusion reaction must be repeated in sequence, quickly, and the targets – the hydrogen molecules – must be produced at low cost and in large numbers.
Despite the importance of renewable energies, such as solar and wind, space problems and low efficiency compared to fossil fuels make them unfeasible in the long term. It is simply not possible to replace hydrocarbons with their negation. It is necessary to replace them with a successor, that is, superior energy sources that, in less space, are capable of producing more energy.
The technological revolution that would be the availability of nuclear fusion would bring radical consequences for society in the same way that other innovations also did. As already mentioned in the video, the fight for the republic would be impossible without the creation of the press and the production of newspapers; just as the consolidation of mass capitalism would have been impossible if not for the fossil fuel revolution and internal combustion engines.
What is worrying is seeing all funding for nuclear fusion projects being state-owned.
In the American case, the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory was financed by the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense – that is, it is the American State that holds the power and knowledge about the technology. In this tune, two scenarios are presented: one pessimistic and one optimistic from the libertarian perspective.
The pessimistic scenario is that technology will remain in the hands of the State, where its agents will take advantage of it to impose a direction predetermined by them on society from top to bottom. Who will not be seduced by the discourse of a glorious vision of the future, even more so with the State distributing cheap energy?
Until last year, it could be said that libertarians would not be seduced by this discourse. However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine proved otherwise, with many libertarians around the world aligning themselves with the invader's interests in the name of restoring lower fuel and energy prices. We stress that libertarianism is about ethics, not convenience.
Once the State, possibly a monopolist of nuclear fusion technology, offers its central planning and allied with it cheap energy, it is very possible that individuals will accept everything in the name of lower energy prices. That's why it's important to raise awareness now while the technology is still in its infancy.
The optimistic scenario is one where private market agents, upon seeing the possibility of a successful merger, will finance research laboratories to develop the technology with the aim of making a profit – that is, selling energy to people, in a much more decentralized way than the State, to recover the value of investments as soon as possible and earn money.
Thus, with the potential energy transition to the nuclear fusion era, there is, on the one hand, the scenario in which the state takes over technology and tries to use it to control the population; on the other hand, there are entrepreneurs wanting to sell it for profit. When businessmen are chasing money, it is the pervasive freedom of people that wins. When the State seeks to carry out a plan or a vision of the future, there is always a loss of autonomy for individuals.
Finally, libertarians must remain vigilant with the energy transition ahead and root for banks to step in to fund nuclear fusion research. Moreover, keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive in the present, working for energy competition; seek diversity in production with solar, wind, biomass, as diversity in production will end up creating diversity in distribution; a scenario of energy robustness and competition. In an optimistic future, together with the private sector, the final consumer will be the great beneficiary, having more autonomy of choice and due to competition and counting on a cheaper product.
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed it, please leave your like!
Here are my other articles:
After ARGENTINA, now THAILAND is welcoming RUSSIANS with their CRYPTOCURRENCIES
US senator creates bill that makes all bitcoin owners financial service providers!
PART II - Government of Lebanon devalues its currency by over 90%
PART I - Government of Lebanon devalues its currency by over 90%
Why did the banking crisis arise and Bitcoin rise?
