Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough; Powering Electric Vehicles; Carbon Capture | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Scott Pelley's January report on the breakthrough in nuclear fusion made by scientists at the National Ignition Facility; From May, Bill Whitaker's story on how companies are developing lithium extraction for electric car batteries in California’s Imperial Valley. And from April, Whitaker's visit to Iceland, where carbon dioxide is captured from the air and buried underground as part of groundbreaking new technology to slow climate change.

#nuclearfusion #science #technology

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0:00 Introduction
0:11 Star Power
13:17 Lithium Valley
26:27 Out of Thin Air

[edschultheis]

As a mechanical engineer, I did my small part in the design of this massive project in 1998 (25 years ago now). I designed all of the square-ish louver-like panels (shown in the background) on the inside of the large sphere shown at 2:31. There were about 250 panels. No two panels were alike. It was an interesting project. It is great to see that this project is beginning to fulfill its original purpose. This NIF project has two main objectives. #1) It is used to verify the effectiveness of the US nuclear weapons stockpile (so that we don't have to do actual nuclear testing in the Nevada desert anymore). #2) It is used to do fusion energy research for the (hopefully) eventual construction of nuclear fusion-powered power plants.

[bwake]

If it doesn’t look practical, take comfort in the fact that nuclear physicists don’t design things for efficiency and practicality. That’s the job for engineers.

[gavinlew]

60 minutes has been serving incredible interviews without the hype. I love how Scott's witty and sharp questions dissect the topic so flawlessly.

[dominicbritt]

When you fully appreciate the effort required to establish ignition, you start to realise how far away Fusion power is...

[JaneDoe-qlsc]

The gentleman narrator is excellent, speaking clearly & calmly in his nice warm voice

[luckyu]

These are the celebrities the world should admire

[GroovyVideo]

powering my whole house with fusion power for 5 years - Solar Panels

[pilotusa]

In the late 1970s, I asked a Fermilab scientist when to expect commercial fusion power generation. He said it was 25 years away. Watching its progress, I find it is ALWAYS 25 years away. It likely still is and might always be 25 years away. On another note, does anyone really believe that the potential financial windfall for the lithium mining at the Salton Sea willl actually benefit the impoverished community already there? The companies will take the money and suck it to the top of their company management, some of which, it seems, will soon be in Australia.

[scottski]

I love the optimism of all who were featured. It's really cute and endearing! I can hear them walking the hallways, quietly whispering.... "I think we can, I think we can, I think we can!"

[sicdavid]

After dozens of breakthroughs we are still decades away.

[seventhson]

We have been "Twenty years away" from Fusion reaction for the last 40 YEARS.

[procrastinateXrok]

Absolutely fantastic, been following this for years so glad actual progress was made

[Hokua]

Out of the 1, 440 minutes of the day this is a really neat and cool sixty. Thank you.

[ambition]

0:28: ⚡ Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have achieved successful fusion of hydrogen atoms using the world's largest lasers, marking a major breakthrough in the pursuit of commercial fusion power.
5:21: 💥 Scientists have successfully conducted a laser fusion experiment, achieving temperatures hotter than the sun, which could revolutionize electric power generation.
11:03: 🔬 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieves a major milestone in fusion power with successful ignition, but experts believe commercial fusion power within a decade is unlikely.
15:30: 🚗 The Salton Sea area in the US is set to become a major supplier of lithium for electric car batteries, with plans for a new plant to produce 20, 000 tons per year.
19:47: 🔋 The Salton Sea in California has the potential to become a major source of lithium, attracting companies like Energy Source and Warren Buffett's bhe Renewables.
24:22: 🌍 The US is investing in domestic lithium production to reduce costs and carbon emissions in the electric vehicle industry.
29:08: 🌍 Scientists in Iceland are using a process called Orca to capture and store CO2 in volcanic rock, but scaling up fast enough to slow climate change is a challenge.
34:20: 🌍 Carbon capture technology must be used in conjunction with reducing emissions and transitioning away from fossil fuels.
38:17: 🌍 Occidental plans to build 130 more direct air capture plants by 2035 in order to avoid a climate catastrophe.
Recap by Tammy AI

[bigkahuna]

My father worked on the initial efforts to develop fusion energy in a project that was sponsored by the University of Rochester . At that time he was on loan from Kodak after a long career in aerospace. He personally showed me the project which featured about 10 laser tubes the length of a basketball court . As the beams travelled through the tubes they were amplified by water-cooled flash lamps and aimed at a stainless steel sphere wherein the target pellet was supposed to go fusion . My dad estimated that this power source would be viable in about 40 years. It’s been much longer than that to be a reality. Yet technology marches on……

[Rad-gbdl]

I love how we have all these "breakthroughs" as we have a ufo hearing on the 26th.

[georgekraus]

The perfection of the target sphere reminded me of the struggle that Los Alamos team worked on back in WWII, in the development of implosion fusion.

[curranhouse]

"It's why they use keys... "
leaves keys on the keyhole 😂😂😂

[corujariousa]

Fusion power is one of those unicorns we keep looking for. We can't yet sustain a reaction for not even 1 sec. The goal is worth it. Only if I can be lucky enough to see it happening in my lifetime...

[mr.ackermann]

Im confused as to why many people keep calling it a breakthrough instead of a milestone. Maybe to get positive feed back from the people and sell the news.