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Fusion Ignition Breakthrough and Python

Episode #403, published Mon, Feb 13, 2023, recorded Wed, Feb 1, 2023

Imagine a world with free and unlimited clean energy. That's the musings of a great science fiction story. But nuclear fusion (the kind that powers the sun) has always been close at hand, we see the sun every day, and yet impossibly far away as a technology. We took a major step towards this becoming a reality with the folks at the Lawrence Livermore National Labratory in the US achieved "ignition" where they got significantly more energy out than they put in. And Python played a major role in this research and experiment. We have Jay Salmonson here to give us a look at the science and the Python code of this discovery.

I've also linked to a 5-minute YouTube video explaining all the tooling of this massive machine. If you have the time, it's worth watching before listening further.

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Links from the show

Jay on Mastodon: hachyderm.io/@jdsalmonson
Jay on Twitter: @JaySalmonson

Official Announcement: lasers.llnl.gov

QnD Package: github.com
PlasmaPy: plasmapy.org
ML in Fusion: llnl.gov
National Ignition Facility Achieves Ignition in Historic Nuclear Fusion Experiment: newenergytimes.net
Video demonstrating the fusion lab: youtube.com
Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com
Episode transcripts: talkpython.fm

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