Fusion energy could be humanity’s answer to damaging fossil fuels

For centuries, our world has been reliant on fossil fuels, with the need for increasing amounts of energy growing steadily as civilization progresses. Aside from renewable sources like solar hydro-electric and wind power, another technology that looks to be a promising substitute is fusion energy.

Fusion power has the capability to offer large amounts of clean energy with close to zero carbon emissions, from a near limitless fuel source. And right now, teams of researchers are spending billions of dollars to pin down just how we can make this work.

Just last year in February, Germany began experimenting with fusion power with the Wendelstein 7-X project. It’s an experimental US $1.06 billion reactor in Greifswald, Germany, to test a new reactor design called a stellarator. The plan is to, by 2021, have the reactor operating for up to 30 minutes at a time, a record duration for a fusion reactor. This itself is only a stepping stone towards a continually operating fusion reactor.

Far from being the only attempt, France is also currently building the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), a US $20 billion experimental fusion reactor that follows something called the ‘tokamak’ design. Both the W 7-X and the ITER use a method called magnetic fusion, which uses magnetic fields to confine the hot fusion fuel in the form of a plasma. Yet, though both projects may use slightly different methods, they both work towards a common goal, that of enabling the continuous working of a fusion reactor.

Fusion energy at its core works to replicate the reactions within the Sun to generate energy. In the Sun, where temperatures reach 15,000,000 degrees Celsius, Hydrogen atoms are in a constate state of agitation. As a result, when the atoms collide, the natural electrostatic repulsion between the nuclei’s postive charges are overcome and the atoms fuse together to form Helium. The Helium formed doesn’t have the same mass as the initial atoms combined to create it. Instead, some mass is lost in the process and a great amount of energy is gained. This is the basis of fusion power.

In man-made fusion reactors, two Hydrogen isotopes, Deuterium and Tritium are used, which theoritically would gain the most amount of energy at the lowest possible temperature. Yet, the ‘lowest power’ required here is still a whopping 150,000,000 degrees Celsius, more than ten times the temperature of fusion reactions within the Sun.

As such, superheating and then containing these source fuels is no mean feat. To accomplish this, the fuels are turned into hot ionised gases, or plasma, which can still be affected by magnetic fields. These magnetic fields thus keep the superheated material from touching the sides of the reactor. Between the heating, and the magnetic fields required, fusion reactors already demand a large amount of energy before even generating any in return. The experiments with the W 7-X and the ITER therefore, are the first that could possibly generate net energy i.e. creating more energy than required to power the reactor systems. Only once this is achieved would a continuously running reactor actually be beneficial.ITER therefore, are the first that could possibly generate net energy i.e. creating more energy than required to power the reactor systems. Only once this is achieved would a continuously running reactor actually be beneficial.