The object of the experiment using the Sandia National Laboratory’s Z machine — the largest X-ray generator in the world — was to better understand the characteristics of a diamond under the extreme pressure it would face when used as a capsule for a BB-sized pellet intended to fuel a nuclear fusion reaction.

Researchers said the experiment is another step in the drive to release enough energy from fused atoms to create unlimited electrical power for humanity. Control of that process has been sought for 50 years, since half a bathtub full of seawater in a fusion reaction could produce as much energy as 40 train cars of coal.

Results of the fusion reaction also will be used to validate physics models in computer simulations used to certify the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration facility.

The results of the experiment were presented last week during the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics in Philadelphia.

Sandia’s Z machine firing. The “arcs and sparks” formed at the water-air interface travel between metal conductors.