Why Fusion Will Power the Race to Net-Zero
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The UK-based JET laboratory has smashed its own world record for the amount of energy it can extract by squeezing together two forms of hydrogen.
If nuclear fusion can be successfully recreated on Earth it holds out the potential of virtually unlimited supplies of low-carbon, low-radiation energy.
The experiments produced 59 megajoules of energy over five seconds (11 megawatts of power).
This is more than double what was achieved in similar tests back in 1997.
Why Fusion Will Power the Race to Net Zero
Governments worldwide are targeting massive decreases in carbon emissions by 2050.
With growing populations and high demand for energy, renewable energy sources will be needed to reach a net-zero scenario.
However, renewables like wind and solar are intermittent and need a baseload source of clean energy to supplement them.
This infographic from General Fusion explores fusion’s potential to deliver clean, abundant, reliable, and cost-competitive energy.
How Fusion Energy Works
Fusion powers the Sun and the stars, where immense forces compress and heat hydrogen plasma, fusing it into helium and releasing enormous amounts of energy.
Here on Earth, scientists use isotopes of hydrogen—deuterium and tritium—to power fusion plants.
Deuterium is abundant in seawater while tritium can be produced from lithium, a common chemical element used in batteries, glass, and ceramics.
In fusion technology, light atomic nuclei are compressed under intense pressure and heat to form heavier ones and release energy.
The fuel is heated to about 100 million degrees Celsius. At this hotter-than-the-sun temperature, a fully ionized gas plasma is formed.
The plasma is then ignited to create fusion.
Unlike nuclear reactors that split atoms apart, fusion power plants fuse atoms to generate energy.
One of the challenges for fusion, however, is to ensure fusion power plants can generate more energy than they consume.
A Sustainable Source of Energy
Fusion is considered one of the safest energy sources since its radiation profile is similar to widely used medical and industrial applications like cyclotrons for cancer treatment.
Fusion power plants have minimal land use and can be built close to cities. They are powered only by hydrogen from water and emit no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.
A century ago, wind power was a farming norm. What happened?
The amount of deuterium present in one liter of water, for example, can produce as much energy as the combustion of 300 litres of oil, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency
.That means there is enough deuterium in the oceans to meet human needs for millions of years.
Besides energy generation, fusion is expected to benefit other markets:
- Space propulsion
- Marine propulsion
- Medical
- Off-grid energy
- Hydrogen and/or clean fuels
- Industrial heat
Fusion Today
In the face of the recent energy crisis, countries—lead by the
United States, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, and the nations of the European Union—are investing billions of dollars to harness fusion power. In fact, the White House recently announced a plan to accelerate fusion’s commercial development over the coming decades.
Among the companies that are leading the development of the technology is General Fusion.
The Canadian company has built and tested 24 different plasma injectors and, in 2018, commissioned the largest and most powerful plasma injector globally.
