By: Natalie Oulikhanian
The demand for energy is universal. It is what runs the processes that are important in modern life. Ranging from massive factories or simple home items, most forms of output equally require the same input: energy to perform their desired functions. However, not all energy is created equal; factors such as efficiency, cost, and safety, can and will reason one entity's decision to use a certain form of energy from another. With the rising amount of objects in the world that need power to move, be manufactured, and create, energy becomes a currency that is heavily sought after. When the demands are high for things that need energy, such as household items for heating or consumption — costs must be low to help fulfill this need.
The short-term want for cost efficiency over long-term safety when choosing an energy source often leads to the turning of non-renewable resources such as natural gases, coal, or oil, from cleaner energy sources which do not play as large of a factor in rising temperatures and the production of harmful emissions. And although clean energy comes in a variety, each comes with its own inefficiencies in comparison to the desirable, cheap, non-renewable, and dangerous fossil fuels. Clean energy sources, such as solar, wind, and tidal, all bear an inherent dependency on weather or geography for its ideal conditions; others might bear the burdens of safety. In nuclear (fission) reactors, the production of radioactive waste requires proper management and its history of reactor meltdowns continues to raise concern for large-scale implementation of this technology. Additionally, issues in costs lead to the common resortment of energy deriving from harmful fossil fuels. This issue in creating reliable and safe energy led scientists to turn to the original source of power which has helped fuel processes on Earth for billions of years: the Sun.
By learning from how history has perfected its on-demand clean energy resource, replicating the sun’s use of an exciting natural phenomenon, nuclear fusion, can be the solution to the perplexing issues of energy demand on Earth. Fusion, not to be confused with nuclear fission — which is used in nuclear power plants today — is simply the combining of two lighter nuclei to form a heavier atom. To accomplish this reaction, a space must be hot enough to strip off electrons from atoms and generate the state of plasma. Plasma, with properties distinct from solids, liquids, or gases, is where electrons and positive ions run freely. Stars have the ability to easily accomplish this step because of the extreme pressure and heat produced by the great amounts of gravity that affect these celestial bodies. In small confined places, atoms will begin to accelerate rapidly due to rising temperatures. This heat helps them to withstand the natural electrical repulsion of two positive nuclei, and, at random, collide. For our sun, the temperatures required to do this are up to 15 million degrees Celsius. The collision of two hydrogen atoms will produce a helium atom, one excess neutron and large amounts of desirable energy.
Achieving stars’ specific process of nuclear fusion on Earth is hard to replicate, significantly because Earth lacks the amount of pressure that naturally exists in the core of stars which allows for fusion to occur. Without this pressure, higher temperatures must supplement — often exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius. Researchers must innovate in creating a container small enough to have large amounts of pressure and with temperatures so that the likelihood of atoms fusing is increased. The process is delicate; if temperatures are too cool then there will not be enough movement from the atoms to overcome electrical repulsion, and too much heat will equally lower the probability to combine fusion fuel, isotopes deuterium and tritium of hydrogen, together. These isotopes make the process of possible fusion on Earth even more efficient and advantageous as they are highly abundant in seawater and could also be extracted from lithium. Additionally, these isotopes must be kept stable under pressure and kept for long enough to allow for the nuclei to have a chance to fuse. To date, the longest plasma operation lasted only over six minutes long. With further research, this record can be surpassed, allowing for a greater possibility for nuclei to combine and more ideal conditions to achieve net energy gain. Scientists have discovered two possible methods in creating plasmas that would be hot enough to allow the reaction of fusing. Firstly, incredibly strong magnetic fields that confine and squeeze plasma in a donut-shaped chamber prevent the dissipation of heat and will allow for fast, uninterrupted, fusion. This is because charged ions and electrons will follow magnetic lines in the chamber and prevent them from having contact with reactor walls and then create disorganization. The second, and newer, form of confinement precisely focuses laser beams on the surface of a target to heat the inner layers of material to reach conditions that are compatible for fusion to exist. Although nuclear fusion is possible, the processes that currently exist require more energy than it generates and the path to a net energy gain fusion system is still under construction.
The implementation of nuclear fusion would drastically alter the energy industry. Further research and experimentation would create the enormous potential to completely change how we view energy demand through the abolition of resorting to fossil fuels. The consideration of a fusion-led energy system is backed up by its ability to provide a permanent switch to an environmentally friendly future, the end of energy scarcity, significant growth to the global economy, and energy independence between all countries as geography is irrelevant in creating a reactor. Not only does this form of energy take advantage of abundant sources like seawater and produce incredibly large amounts of energy with no harmful emissions in return, it does not have the immanent risks that current nuclear fusion reactors bear. Even the safest nuclear plants today — which practice the nuclear reaction of fission where atoms are split apart to generate energy — still face the threat of meltdowns, explosions, and hold the burden of storing and managing radioactive waste away from civilization. However, because of nuclear fusion’s process of combining light atoms within highly particular ranges of temperature and pressure, there is no chance for a chain reaction. If the confinement in a fission reactor were to fail, the plasma would simply cool and the necessary environment for fusion to occur would not exist.
For over 50 years, scientists have understood the rewards that achieving nuclear fusion would create yet still undergo the struggle of discovering the first effective example of this energy. The truth is, obtaining efficient and commercially-viable nuclear fusion is difficult. The manufacturing of the equipment needed in fusion reactors is expensive in a world where low costs run energy decisions. With further funding and research, the very possible future of fusion reactors in commercial use would most likely be possible in several decades in the future. Current pressures from the climate and the growing need for energy around the world heavily influence the pace of how technology is being developed. The number of promising companies around the world that recognize the benefits of this limitless energy are growing, and with added time, investment, and innovation in them, the future remains bright for nuclear fusion.
What did you learn?
What is the process of nuclear fusion?
Nuclear fusion is the reaction that fuels our sun and all other stars. The reaction occurs when two lighter nuclei collide into each other to produce a new, heavier atom, an extra neutron, and large amounts of energy. This process can only happen in specific conditions. Under intense amounts of heat and pressure, electrons are first stripped off where nuclei and charged ions will then rapidly move around in a plasma. In this environment, nuclei have the chance to collide and overcome their natural repulsion without any nuclear waste created.
What would the benefits be with nuclear fusion on Earth?
Nuclear fusion would produce on-demand clean energy that is independent from geography. Once created, fusion will be a safe energy source that does not have any impact on the environment as zero harmful emissions are created and the risk of meltdowns or radioactive waste is impossible. Most importantly, the technology would produce very large amounts of energy from small amounts of fusion fuel which come from abundant resources like seawater, and permanently flip the market for energy upside-down. However, getting net energy gain systems on Earth is not possible yet, and with further investment and research this energy of the future is very probable to arrive.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2019/01/14/is-fusion-power-within-our-grasp/?sh=164cb0cf9bb4
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