Z Machine Fusion Plant

Z Machine fusion could solve the world's energy shortage

Once sparked with a relatively small electrical input, the Z Machine can produce a staggering 290 terawatts of power. That's equivalent to 80 times the world's total power output. Today, that power can only be released in a pulse lasting 70 billionths of a second - but it's a start.

Based at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, it is used to research thermonuclear reactions - for example, what happens at the heart of a hydrogen bomb detonation. Now it has a more productive application: finding a way to fuse heavy water atoms to create fusion power. Fusion is the Holy Grail of the power industry: cheap, clean, safe and unlimited.

The central vacuum chamber of the Z Machine (above), is 10ft in diameter and 20ft deep, surrounded by banks of capacitors - the enormous 'batteries' used to store the charge that fire the machine.

When the wires that are inside the tiny 'target' are vaporized, the tungsten threads are forced to travel inwards at a speed of over 3,000 miles per second, and the result is an enormous, sudden release of energy.

Daily Mail

Z Machine