Nuclear Fusion - Could Fulfill the World Energy Need?
After decades of discouraging setbacks, plasma physics has made jaw-dropping recent progress.To show that fusion has practical value, a consortium in Europe will build the world's largest fusion reactor in France. In a few months' time, construction of a new power plant will begin in Cadarache, near Marseille, as part of a project known as ITER (originally "International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor"). The 500-megawatt experimental reactor should produce ten times more energy than necessary to heat its plasma.
What fusion power plants can do, in theory, sounds a bit like witchcraft. Nuclear fusion converts matter to energy, so a 1000-megawatt fusion reactor would require an amazingly small amount of fuel. It would burn the weight equivalent of around ten cubes of sugar per hour. A kilogram of hydrogen could generate as much electricity as 11,000 metric tons of coal.
For half a century 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.Plasma, to physicists, is the fourth physical state after solid, liquid and gas and high-temperature plasma has a density of about one millionth that of air at sea level. As soon as the plasma comes into contact with the walls of the reaction chamber, the impurities it picks up cause it to lose temperature. Then the fusion process then breaks down. New reactors, using huge microwave components, heat the hydrogen plasma within seconds to temperatures several times those of the sun.
What fusion power plants can do, in theory, sounds a bit like witchcraft. Nuclear fusion converts matter to energy, so a 1000-megawatt fusion reactor would require an amazingly small amount of fuel. It would burn the weight equivalent of around ten cubes of sugar per hour. A kilogram of hydrogen could generate as much electricity as 11,000 metric tons of coal.
For half a century 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.Plasma, to physicists, is the fourth physical state after solid, liquid and gas and high-temperature plasma has a density of about one millionth that of air at sea level. As soon as the plasma comes into contact with the walls of the reaction chamber, the impurities it picks up cause it to lose temperature. Then the fusion process then breaks down. New reactors, using huge microwave components, heat the hydrogen plasma within seconds to temperatures several times those of the sun.
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