[ad_1]
I first heard the standard joke about fusion as an undergraduate physics student in the 1960s: Fusion power is fifty years away – and probably always will be.
More than fifty years later, we still don’t have fusion. That’s because of the huge experimental challenges in recreating a miniature sun on earth.
Still, real progress continues to be made. This month, UK fusion researchers achieved this feat. double previous recordsThe process of producing energy. American scientists were the first to produce energy in the last year. Close to ignitionThe moment when fusion releases more energy than it needs to initiate the reaction. Small, fast-moving startups in fusion are also available. Making progress using different techniques.
A limitless, clean source of baseload power might be within reach – without the nuclear waste of traditional fission nuclear plants. That’s good, right?
Not quite. While we’re closer than ever to making commercial fusion viable, this new power source simply won’t get here in time to do the heavy lifting of decarbonisation.
We are working hard to limit the damage caused by climate change. Fortunately, we already have the technologies that we need for decarbonisation.
Shutterstock
What progress has been made in fusion?
Five seconds. That’s how long the UK’s Joint European Torus was able to sustain a fusion reaction, producing enough energy to run a typical Australian household for about three days. That’s a small fraction of the energy needed to make the fusion reaction happen, which used two 500 megawatt Flywheels. This amount of power would provide enough power to meet the peak energy needs of 100,000 Australian households. We are still far from seeing a net energy savings from fusion.
These achievements are amazing on a technical level. We are working to harness the power of nuclear fusion for our own purposes.
Continue reading:
How excited should we get about nuclear fusion?
At extremely high temperatures, light elements such as hydrogen can combine with other elements such as helium to make another element. This can result in enormous amounts of energy.
These fusion reactions occur at temperatures of about 10 million degrees in the sun. We can’t do it at that temperature, because we don’t have access to the enormous gravitational pressure at the centre of the sun.
We need to get hotter in order to achieve fusion on Earth. Much hotter. Experiments like the one in the UK are able to superheat a body of gas called a plasma to inconceivable temperatures, reaching as high as 150 million℃. The plasma must be constrained by strong magnetic fields and heated using powerful lasers.
This temperature is far hotter than anywhere else in our solar system – even the centre of the sun.
Although the recent progress is a great step forward, it is still a long way to go before we can achieve the unlimited clean energy from hydrogen.
The next megaproject is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is being built in southern France. This is a joint effort of countries from the EU, Russia, China, USA and the UK. It is far too large to be managed by any one country.
It is a huge project with a vessel ten-times the size of the UK reactor, and around 5,000 engineers, scientists, and technical experts working on it. Famously, the project’s largest magnet is Strong enoughTo lift an aircraft carrier.
Even this huge project is expected to produce only slightly more power than it consumes – approximately 500 megawatts. The first experiments are expected to begin in 2025.
This shows me how far away commercial nuclear fusion really seems to be.
ITER Organization, CC BY
Fusion won’t get here in time
It will take decades to transform these promising ideas into a technology that can power modern society. It won’t be here in time to make any real contributions to slowing down and reverse climate change.
To have a decent chance of keeping climate change below 2℃, we have to get to net zero emissions worldwide in under 30 years.
Continue reading:
What does the new nuclear fusion breakthrough mean for the future?
We can’t wait. We need to decarbonise as quickly as possible energy supply and usage.
Many countries are already moving at a rapid pace. The UK plans to achieve zero-emissions electricity in 12 years. New South Wales and South Australia should be there in the same timeframe. According to the International Energy Agency, renewables are predicted. It will beThe largest source of electricity generation in the world by 2025
The shift from baseload
Even if fusion is possible, it will face significant challenges due to the rising cost of the plants as well as the changing nature the grid.
Power stations grew in size to make it possible to scale up. It worked, up until recently. Until a decade ago, large coal-fired and nuclear power stations produced electricity cheaper than solar farms and wind turbines.
This has changed dramatically. 2020 will be the year of the Millennial. global average pricesThe average cost of power from large wind turbines was 4.1c per kilowatt hour, while solar farms were even more affordable at 3.7c/kWh. The average price for new coal? 11.2 c/kWh.
In 2020, the economics were ever more favorable and a huge investment was made in renewables: 127 gigawatts new solar, 111 new wind, 20 hydro-power and 111 new wind. However, net nuclear power reached only 3GW, while coal-fired energy actually fell.
As a result, we’re seeing a global shift away from old models of baseload power, where power is generated in large power stations and transported to us by the grid.
These shifts are driven primarily by cost. The cost of electricity from renewables has fallen below the running costs of older coal-fired and nuclear power stations. Coal power requires the digging of coal, transporting it, then burning it. Renewables are able to get their power source for free.
The idea of fusion power is appealing. There’s a real appeal in the idea we could replace large coal and gas stations with one large clean fusion power plant. This is the main selling point of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. produce baseload power.
EUROfusion, CC BY
But do we really need it. The supply of power is changing. With the huge take-up of solar energy by households, we have moved away from large power stations to a model where supply is distributed throughout the network.
It will be a technological miracle if we are able to build nuclear fusion plants within the second half century. It’s just that they won’t be in time.
Luckily for us, we don’t need fusion. We already have what you need.
