![]() ![]() Nuclear fusion - the reaction that powers the sun - has the potential to unlock clean, affordable energy for planet Earth. How Close Are We To Unlocking The 'Limitless' Energy Of Nuclear Fusion? 02 June 2022 New IEF Report Warns Underinvestment Raises Spectre of Price Shocks and Volatility.Energy Security Focus of G20 Energy Ministers.Smart Energy - Transitions & Technology.“While there are still many challenges that lie ahead for fusion, the potential benefits are huge and I’m incredibly excited to see what’s next in this field as we continue to push innovation and drive towards a cleaner, more sustainable, equitable and just future. “In a world where we have fought wars over energy and access to resources used for energy production and where we are seeing accelerated impacts of climate change, fusion brings us hope and an amazing challenge,” she said. Even then, researchers believe that nuclear fusion may still be decades away.īut when-or maybe, if-it pans out, it could have ripple effects that go far beyond greener energy, Diem said. Towards these goals, the Biden-Harris administration announced in April 2022 funding for two pilot fusion power plants totaling $50 million, although there’s skepticism of how this funding will pan out. In a planetary twist, however, scientists have recently discovered that there’s more helium-3 on Earth than previously thought, although its source remains mysterious. China, for example, has claimed to find helium-3 in moon dirt. The search for fuels has even caused scientists to look at outer space, where a helium isotope called helium-3-a promising fuel for nuclear fusion reactors-is largely found. To make commercial fusion viable, scientists and engineers will need to develop new materials that can withstand the fusion environment as well as develop new ways to create fuel for these reactions, such as harvesting the ingredients from seawater. “Now that we have demonstrated that controlled fusion is possible, next, we will need to tackle the engineering challenges required to generate electricity,” she said. In recent years nuclear fusion breakthroughs like NIF’s energy gain, Europe’s Joint European Torus (JET) sustained energy pulse, and private UK-based Tokamak Energy’s improved heating have been scraping away at the requirements for nuclear fusion, but Diem said that right now they’re not much more than science experiments. Continued pressure on this plasma then forces it to undergo fusion. Originally designed by Soviet scientists in the late 1950s, tokamaks work by using magnets and a vacuum to compress and heat up hydrogen atoms until they transform into a plasma. Many other government and private projects alike, including France’s highly anticipated ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), use tokamaks to heat up their star fuel. ![]() Even if new fission reactors can overcome these pitfalls, the energy source is still finite. The downside of this approach is that using radioactive atoms as the reactors’ energy source results in dangerous waste products and can also be susceptible to dangerous meltdowns like those that took place at Chernobyl in the 80s and Fukushima in 2011. Depending on their size, nuclear power plants like these have an annual generating capacity of roughly 500-1000 megawatts, equivalent to up to the power of 1.3 million horses per plant. This energy is then used to heat water and create steam in order to turn turbines which create electricity. Nuclear fission is at the heart of nuclear power plants around the world and works by breaking apart the atoms of radioactive elements like uranium to create a burst of energy. While both reactions are nuclear, meaning they both involve energy changes at the center of atomic nuclei, they are actually polar opposites in many ways. If nuclear fusion has so much potential, it may seem unclear why its counterpart, nuclear fission, can’t go toe-to-toe. ![]()
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