Will Nuclear Fusion Solve the Energy Crisis?
I remember seeing the movie Chain Reaction back in 1996 and praying that nuclear fusion would become a reality in my lifetime. And according to researchers at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLNL) in California, it just might. At the facility’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), researchers are gearing up to test the potentially unlimited power source.
The NIF has almost finished construction on the world’s largest laser. After its completion in March 2009, researchers will start to prepare for fusion ignition. The first attempt is scheduled for 2010, with nuclear fusion expected to occur in 2011.
Once fusion is reached, researchers speculate that a pilot power generation plant could be ready as soon as 2020, with commercialization following soon after.
Nuclear fusion—limitless, clean nuclear energy produced by combining atoms—has been a pipe dream for scientists and sci-fi geeks for decades. Now it’s no longer out of reach—just as long as we survive our immediate energy crisis intact.
Photo Credit: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
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November 13th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
If fission were available today would it be used? Solar, wind, tidal,geothermal and wave energy are all available, yet, morons like McCain insist on filthy nuclear plants, and the province of Ontario in Canada is initiating building them? Go figure!
November 13th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I’m sorry Uncle B but nuclear energy is the key to ending global warming and getting us off of the oil dependence bandwagon. Japan and France have known this for years and get the majority of their power from the Atom.
Nuclear Reprocessing takes care of the majority of the waste produced in those two countries. The French are also working on a way to keep the reprocessed fuel from being used for nuclear weapons as well. This fact shouldn’t stop those other forms of alternative energy but nuclear needs to replace oil and coal plants ASAP if we hope to tackle climate change.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Joimama75, nuclear energy isn’t the sole path to sustainable existence. Even ignoring the environmental concerns, it is not a cheap energy source. The cost of doubling our current nuclear electricity output (from 20% to 40%)would cost roughly $500 billion, and that doesn’t take into account the cost of training the work force and disposing of the waste. Further, nuclear reprocessing doesn’t get ride of the waste – we spent 20 years building a storage facility under Yucca Mountain that the EPA admits will leak significant radiation. Uranium isn’t an unlimited resource and without further discovery we’d be lucky to make it a quarter century before we couldn’t meet the demand of a nuclear-powered U.S. Distributed generation and energy conservation are in fact the key to getting off of the oil bandwagon.
@Ariel, thanks for another article. To be fair, nuclear fusion isn’t an unlimited power supply. It is a self-sustaining reaction but the fuel source (deuterium) is abundant but not limitless and most of the power generated goes into containing the reaction. Even if usable power can be extracted, you’re still left with an isolated power source that has to be distributed over long distances to the grid, which wastes up to half of the generated energy. I’m a fan of fusion research but it’s a much more humble prospect than most people picture.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
@Bryan
Though you’re correct in pointing out that many of the fusion methods with the most potential rely on extra heavy hydrogen (deuterium and tritium), this is only a problem in the short term. Simply increasing the efficiency of the process allows you to use other atomic species. To put is simply, the sun is running of hydrogen, not its rare isotope cousins. Also, there are some very interesting processes that utilize hydrogen and boron (both rediculously abundant for what would be needed) in a process that has no radioactive precursor, intermediate, or product.
November 25th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I personally believe that further development of fission would yield excellent results to the point at which we can build solid state fission reactors. Unfortunately we are still stuck in the steam age and need to move to direct conversion from radiation to electrons aka solid state fission.
Regards