TED: The Secret Power of Infinite Energy - Lasers
What would you do with the largest laser in the world? Send a beeb into space. Strap the laser to the head of a shark. Or maybe just use it to amuse your cat.
你会如何利用世界上最大的激光？把它发射到太空？把它绑在鲨鱼头上？或者只是用它来逗你的猫？
Well, the laser that I'm talking about is nothing like your typical laser pointer. No, this laser is 1,000 times more powerful than the entire US military. It's the most energetic laser in the world.
好吧，我所说的激光与你平常看到的激光指示器完全不同。不，这种激光的功率是整个美军的 1000 倍。它是世界上能量最大的激光。
I guarantee you, you're going to want to keep your cat far, far away from this laser. Now, I'm a physicist, so what I would want to do with this laser is something a little bit different. I'd take that laser and split it into almost 200 beams and shine them from every angle onto a little pellet of hydrogen.
我向你保证，你一定会想让你的猫远离、远离这种激光。现在，我是一名物理学家，所以我想用这种激光做一些稍微不同的事情。我会把激光分成近 200 束，从各个角度照射到一小块氢丸上。
Hydrogen, that very first element on the periodic table. I'd use the laser to squeeze and compress that hydrogen until the atoms themselves fuse. That's called fusion, and it's the same reaction that powers the sun.
氢，元素周期表上的第一个元素。我会用激光挤压和压缩氢，直到原子本身融合。这被称为聚变，它与太阳提供能量的反应相同。
So with our giant laser, we could actually create miniature stars right here on Earth. Pretty cool, right? OK, that's the goal, but why? Why do we care to do this? Fusion means unlocking a different kind of nuclear power. Instead of splitting big, heavy atoms, like we do with fission in today's nuclear power plants, fusion means bringing together the atoms of a light element until they merge.
因此，利用我们的巨型激光，我们实际上可以在地球上创造出微型恒星。很酷，对吧？好的，这就是目标，但为什么呢？我们为什么要这样做？聚变意味着释放一种不同的核能。与我们今天在核电站中通过裂变来分裂大的、重的原子不同，聚变意味着将轻元素的原子聚集在一起，直到它们融合。
In our case, we're going to use deuterium and tritium. They are isotopes of hydrogen, heavy hydrogen, and if we can use our lasers to get them close enough together at hot enough temperatures and hold them there long enough until they fuse, what we create on the other side is a helium nucleus and a neutron. And it just so happens that that helium and neutron weigh just a little bit less than our deuterium and tritium originally did.
就我们而言，我们将使用氘和氚。它们是氢的同位素，重氢，如果我们能够使用激光在足够高的温度下使它们足够接近，并将它们保持在那里足够长的时间直到它们融合，我们在另一边创造的是一个氦核和一个中子。碰巧的是，氦和中子的重量比我们最初的氘和氚要轻一点。
So we're going to take that differential in mass and put it into an equation that everybody knows really well. Einstein's E equals MC squared. Where that M is that differential in mass, we're going to multiply by C, the speed of light, a huge, huge number, squared, and with that get a tremendous amount of energy out.
因此，我们将取质量的差值，并将其代入一个众所周知的方程式。爱因斯坦的 E 等于 MC 的平方。其中 M 是质量的差值，我们将乘以 C，光速，一个巨大的数字，平方，并由此获得巨大的能量。
How tremendous? Well, one single pound of fusion fuel has the same amount of energy as 5,000 barrels of oil or 3.5 million pounds of coal. So fusion is the ultimate energy source, not least because the fuel that we need for fusion is also very abundant. Deuterium is naturally occurring in seawater.
有多大？嗯，一磅聚变燃料的能量相当于 5000 桶石油或 350 万磅煤。因此，聚变是最终的能源，尤其是因为我们进行聚变所需的燃料也非常丰富。氘天然存在于海水中。
About one in every 7,000 particles is D2O instead of H2O. And tritium, we know how to breed from lithium. So conceivably, we actually have enough fusion fuel on Earth to last us 30 billion years of human consumption at today's levels.
大约每 7000 个粒子中就有一个是 D2O 而不是 H2O。而氚，我们知道如何从锂中提取。因此可以想象，我们在地球上实际上拥有足够的聚变燃料，足以维持我们今天水平的 300 亿年的人类消耗。
If you ask me, I'd call that energy security. Fusion is also clean energy. In our equation, it was a deuterium plus a tritium gave us a helium.
如果你问我，我认为这就是能源安全。聚变也是清洁能源。在我们的方程式中，一个氘加上一个氚产生了一个氦。
Carbon is nowhere in that equation. Fusion is also inherently safe. In order to start a fusion reaction, we first have to put energy into the system to make the atoms fuse.
碳在这个方程式中无处可寻。聚变本质上也是安全的。为了启动聚变反应，我们首先必须向系统输入能量，使原子融合。
So if you ever want to stop a fusion reaction, you just cut off that initial energy source. Fusion will create waste, but it's not the kind of waste that will last for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Instead, the low-level nuclear waste of fusion can decay away in just decades.
因此，如果你想停止聚变反应，只需切断初始能量来源即可。聚变会产生废物，但它不是那种会持续数万年或数十万年的废物。相反，聚变产生的低水平核废料可以在几十年内衰变。
And that means we can place fusion power plants almost anywhere, near large population centers and big cities, and fusion power plants would be compatible with our current grid infrastructure or the smart grids of the future. And finally, fusion energy is also flexible energy, energy when you need it, and can come in different forms, electricity to power our homes, but also high-temperature heat for industrial use. Now, to be fair, there are some downsides to fusion, too.
这意味着我们可以将聚变发电厂放置在几乎任何地方，靠近人口稠密的中心和大城市，而且聚变发电厂将与我们当前的电网基础设施或未来的智能电网兼容。最后，聚变能源也是灵活的能源，可以在需要时提供能源，并且可以以不同的形式出现，为我们的家庭供电，也可以为工业用途提供高温热能。现在，公平地说，聚变也有一些缺点。
Fusion is incredibly complex and incredibly difficult. The development of fusion has been and will be expensive. But the potential benefits of fusion are so great that it is worth it.
聚变极其复杂和困难。聚变的开发一直并将是昂贵的。但聚变的潜在好处是如此之大，值得我们去做。
All right, so how do we actually make fusion work here on Earth? Well, that's a problem that we've been working on for nearly 60 years now. Let's go back to that ginormous laser. It's called the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
好吧，那么我们如何才能在地球上实现聚变呢？嗯，这是一个我们已经研究了近 60 年的问题。让我们回到那个巨大的激光上。它被称为国家点火装置，简称 NIF，位于劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室。
The NIF is the world's largest, most energetic laser, housed in a building the size of three American football fields side by side and 10 stories tall. It's not just one laser. It's actually 192 separate lasers, and each one alone is one of the most energetic in the world.
NIF 是世界上最大、能量最高的激光器，它 housed 在一座相当于三个美式足球场并排且有 10 层楼高的建筑中。它不仅仅是一台激光器。它实际上是 192 台独立的激光器，每一台都是世界上能量最高的激光器之一。
And we're going to combine all 192 of those lasers and shine them on a little fuel pellet about the size of a peppercorn. All right, let me take you into the facility and give you a closer look. The laser starts as a little pulse of light, the fraction of the energy of a typical laser pointer.
我们将把所有 192 台激光器组合在一起，并将它们照射到一个大约胡椒粒大小的小燃料丸上。好了，让我带你进入设施，让你近距离观察一下。激光一开始是一束微小的光脉冲，其能量只有一般激光指示器的一小部分。
We're going to split that beam into 192 ways, and those beams are now going to bounce back and forth across this giant facility, each beam passing through hundreds of slabs of laser glass, getting boosted up in energy. In total, each beam is going to travel nearly a mile and get amplified up a million billion times in energy and expanded in size from a little pinprick to over a square foot. And then all 192 laser beams are going to get directed towards the fusion chamber.
我们要把这束光分成 192 路，然后这些光束将在这个巨大的装置中来回反射，每束光都要穿过数百块激光玻璃板，从而获得能量提升。总的来说，每束光束将传播近一英里，其能量将被放大 100 万倍，其尺寸将从一个小针孔扩大到超过一平方英尺。然后，所有 192 束激光束都将被引导到聚变室。
Half the laser beams go up and half come down, and they're going to direct and concentrate their light on a tiny cylinder that sits right in the middle, about the size of a pencil eraser. The lasers go into that cylinder and create a bath of X-rays that then envelop the little fuel pellet that sits right in the middle. Those X-rays are so intense that they start blowing off the shell of that pellet like a rocket, and then by conservation of momentum, the rest of the capsule squeezes inward, equal and opposite reaction.
一半的激光束向上，一半向下，它们将把光线引导并集中到位于正中央的一个小圆柱体上，这个圆柱体大约有一块铅笔橡皮擦那么大。激光进入圆柱体，产生 X 射线浴，然后包裹住位于正中央的小燃料丸。这些 X 射线的强度非常高，以至于它们开始像火箭一样吹掉燃料丸的外壳，然后根据动量守恒定律，燃料丸的其余部分向内挤压，产生大小相等、方向相反的反作用力。
We're going to reach temperatures of over 180 million degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the center of the sun, and pressures that would feel like 100 billion Earth atmospheres pressing down on you. And then we start a little spark right in the center, which then propagates through more of that fuel, creating a miniature star, and with it a huge burst of energy. And if we do it right, we can actually get a whole lot more energy out than the energy that went in to start all of this.
我们将达到超过 1.8 亿华氏度的温度，比太阳中心的温度还要高，而且压力会让你感觉像是 1000 亿个地球大气压在你身上。然后，我们在中心点燃一个小火花，然后它会在更多的燃料中传播，创造出一颗微型恒星，并随之产生巨大的能量爆发。如果我们做得对，我们实际上可以获得比启动这一切所需的能量多得多的能量。
I know, it sounds really easy, right? Well, obviously, this is a story that bridges enormous scales, the temperature and density of a star focused in on the atomic level. Remember how I said that laser is 1,000 times the power of the US electrical grid? Well, power is defined as energy per unit time. So what we're doing is taking a huge amount of energy and compressing it down into just nanoseconds.
我知道，这听起来很简单，对吧？嗯，显然，这是一个跨越巨大尺度的故事，恒星的温度和密度集中在原子水平上。还记得我说过激光器的功率是美国电网的 1000 倍吗？嗯，功率的定义是单位时间内的能量。因此，我们正在做的是获取巨大的能量，并将其压缩到纳秒级的时间内。
And that's why every time we fire the lasers, the lights don't flicker across the globe. But we are able to create conditions that are the hottest in the entire solar system. All right, so I know what you guys are all thinking, like how could this actually possibly work, right? And who would be crazy enough to try? Well, tens of thousands of scientists and engineers around the world, including me.
这就是为什么每次我们发射激光时，全球的灯光都不会闪烁的原因。但我们能够创造出整个太阳系中最热的条件。好了，我知道你们都在想什么，比如这怎么可能真的奏效，对吧？谁会疯到去尝试呢？嗯，全世界成千上万的科学家和工程师，包括我。
And scientists are trying all different approaches to fusion, not just giant lasers, but sometimes giant magnets, things that have cool names like tokamaks or stellarators that can help shape and contain the fusion. And right now, we're actually seeing a whole bunch of new private startup fusion companies pop up all across the globe, each one trying a unique and different approach to fusion. It's a whole host of brave and brilliant individuals working hard to make this dream a reality.
科学家们正在尝试所有不同的聚变方法，不仅是巨型激光器，有时还有巨型磁铁，这些东西的名字很酷，比如托卡马克或仿星器，可以帮助塑造和约束聚变。现在，我们实际上看到全球各地涌现出一大批新的私营聚变初创公司，每家公司都在尝试一种独特而不同的聚变方法。这是一大批勇敢而聪明的人，他们正在努力使这个梦想成为现实。
And our team at Lawrence Livermore National Lab are the stewards of work that started in 1960 because of national security. We need to understand fusion to understand how to ensure that our U.S. nuclear arsenal stays safe and effective. And that is what has provided the steady funding to pursue this very difficult physics challenge over decades.
我们在劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室的团队是这项始于 1960 年的工作的管理者，因为国家安全。我们需要了解聚变，才能了解如何确保我们的美国核武库保持安全和有效。几十年来，正是这一点为我们提供了稳定的资金，使我们能够应对这一极其困难的物理挑战。
So, yeah, it took us 12 years to build the NIF, and we've been doing experiments using it for nearly 15 years more now. And in that time, we've improved our physics understanding and computational simulation models. We've designed new diagnostic instruments capable of taking better, clearer, faster pictures of the experiment.
所以，是的，我们花了 12 年的时间建造了 NIF，我们已经用它进行了近 15 年的实验。在那段时间里，我们改进了对物理学的理解和计算模拟模型。我们设计了新的诊断仪器，能够更清晰、更快速地拍摄实验图像。
We've continuously pushed up the laser energy and found ways to build better targets. And guess what? In December of 2022, we finally did it. Our team at Lawrence Livermore National Lab demonstrated fusion ignition.
我们不断提高激光能量，并找到了制造更好目标的方法。你猜怎么着？2022 年 12 月，我们终于做到了。我们在劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室的团队演示了聚变点火。
For the very first time in human history, we generated a controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction in the laboratory that generated more energy out than went in with the lasers to start it. That's right. We were able to light a match and turn that into a bonfire and, in the process, release a new form of energy that is a million times more energetic than a chemical reaction.
在人类历史上，我们第一次在实验室中产生了受控热核聚变反应，产生的能量超过了启动激光器所需的能量。没错。我们能够点燃一根火柴，并将其变成一堆篝火，并在此过程中释放出一种比化学反应能量高一百万倍的新形式的能量。
And now we've actually been able to repeat ignition four more times in just the last 15 months, with our most successful experiment giving us over twice as much energy out as we put in with the lasers. So, are we done? Well, not quite. In order to move towards that fusion energy future, we'll have to figure out how to harness this energy in a working fusion power plant.
现在，在过去的 15 个月中，我们实际上已经能够重复点火四次，我们最成功的实验产生的能量是我们用激光输入的能量的两倍多。那么，我们完成了吗？嗯，还没有。为了走向聚变能源的未来，我们必须弄清楚如何在运行中的聚变发电厂中利用这种能量。
And, to be clear, there's still a long scientific and engineering road ahead. Just to build on our successes at NIF, we'll have to build more efficient lasers, mass manufacture targets, and figure out robotics for automated operations and more. The depth and breadth of this challenge will require sustained investment from government and private industry and all of us working together.
而且，需要明确的是，在科学和工程方面还有很长的路要走。仅仅为了在 NIF 的成功基础上再接再厉，我们就必须建造更高效的激光器，大规模生产目标，并为自动化操作等方面找到机器人技术。这项挑战的深度和广度将需要政府和私营部门以及我们所有人共同努力，持续投资。
We're all racing to make this a reality, but there's still a lot more work to be done. I don't know exactly how long this will all take, but I do know that we can do it. And when we do it, when we make fusion energy a reality, energy will become so plentiful that it will no longer be a limited resource.
我们都在竞相使之成为现实，但还有很多工作要做。我不知道这一切到底需要多长时间，但我知道我们能做到。当我们做到了，当我们使聚变能源成为现实时，能源将变得非常丰富，它将不再是一种有限的资源。
This will change the world as we know it. When energy becomes essentially unlimited, there are unlimited ways to use this energy. Every country will be energy independent.
这将改变我们所知道的世界。当能源变得基本上取之不尽时，使用这种能源的方式也是无限的。每个国家都将实现能源独立。
Standards of living will rise around the world. And we'll be able to use energy in creative new ways as well, like carbon capture at scale to combat climate change. Vertical farming for delicious, sustainable food for all.
世界各地的生活水平都将提高。我们还将能够以创造性的新方式使用能源，例如大规模碳捕获以应对气候变化。垂直农业为所有人提供美味、可持续的食物。
And desalination of seawater so that everybody has access to clean water. We can do all this and more with fusion. Fusion can ignite that future.
以及海水淡化，以便每个人都能获得清洁水。我们可以通过聚变做到这一切，甚至更多。聚变可以点燃未来。
Thank you.
谢谢。
decay - verb. to be gradually destroyed by a natural process. 腐烂，衰变
grid - noun. a network of lines, wires, etc. that cross each other. 电网
infrastructure - noun. the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. 基础设施
downside - noun. a disadvantage of a situation. 缺点
ginormous - adjective. extremely large. 极其巨大的
ignition - noun. the act of starting to burn or explode. 点燃
facility - noun. a place, especially including buildings, where a particular activity happens. 设施
peppercorn - noun. the small, round, black or white seed of a climbing plant, used as a spice, especially when crushed or ground. 胡椒粒
slab - noun. a thick, flat piece of a solid material. 厚板
amplified - adjective. made larger or louder. 放大的
pinprick - noun. a very small spot of something. 针孔
cylinder - noun. a solid object shaped like a tube or can. 圆柱体
envelop - verb. to wrap something up completely. 包裹
conservation of momentum - noun. a fundamental law of physics that states that the total momentum of a system remains constant in the absence of external forces. 动量守恒
propagate - verb. to spread to other places or to other people. 传播
steward - noun. a person who manages another's property or financial affairs; caretaker. 管理员
arsenal - noun. a collection of weapons. 军火库
bonfire - noun. a large fire that is made outside. 篝火
harness - verb. to control and make use of (natural resources), especially to produce energy. 利用
robotics - noun. the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots. 机器人学
plentiful - adjective. existing or available in large quantities. 丰富的
desalination - noun. the process of removing salt from seawater. 海水淡化
