Nuclear Fusion Closer to Reality? Some Think Yes
A consortium of governments will build a groundbreaking fusion power plant in France for a price in excess of €5 billion. After decades of discouraging setbacks, plasma physics has made jaw-dropping recent progress. Could it save the world?
For over 50 years physicists around the world have struggled with the problem of bringing nuclear fusion under control. Fusion -- as opposed to fission, which drives all commercial nuclear power plants now -- could solve a number of problems related to energy generation. The general public has given up hope in fusion, after all this time, but scientists working in the field of plasma physics appear to be making significant progress.
Fusion takes place by itself within stars. Under conditions of extreme heat and pressure, hydrogen nuclei combine to form helium atoms, releasing enormous amounts of energy. This process of fusion, lasting for billions of years, has provided a constant supply of light and warmth on earth. But a process comes naturally to the sun is not so easy to reproduce in a lab.
"We are getting close to a breakthrough and things are moving forward much faster than many people realize," Günther Hasinger, the new director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, maintained. "With a kind of 'Apollo Program' for nuclear fusion we could have built a reactor for commercial-scale production by the turn of the millennium. All we needed was the money to build a big enough machine."
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For over 50 years physicists around the world have struggled with the problem of bringing nuclear fusion under control. Fusion -- as opposed to fission, which drives all commercial nuclear power plants now -- could solve a number of problems related to energy generation. The general public has given up hope in fusion, after all this time, but scientists working in the field of plasma physics appear to be making significant progress.
Fusion takes place by itself within stars. Under conditions of extreme heat and pressure, hydrogen nuclei combine to form helium atoms, releasing enormous amounts of energy. This process of fusion, lasting for billions of years, has provided a constant supply of light and warmth on earth. But a process comes naturally to the sun is not so easy to reproduce in a lab.
"We are getting close to a breakthrough and things are moving forward much faster than many people realize," Günther Hasinger, the new director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, maintained. "With a kind of 'Apollo Program' for nuclear fusion we could have built a reactor for commercial-scale production by the turn of the millennium. All we needed was the money to build a big enough machine."
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