After decades of failed attempts, scientists believe they are finally getting closer to achieving nuclear fusion at the scale necessary to produce abundant clean energy.
Recent advances in laboratories in the United States and the United Kingdom
Several recent successes have made energy experts optimistic about the future of the nuclear fusion, although some believe that we are still far from achieving fusion on a commercial scale. However, the achievements seen in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in USA and other laboratories around the world have encouraged companies to invest heavily in the sector.
Last August, scientists from USA achieved a net increase in energy in a fusion reaction for the second time in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California. This marked a major advance in nuclear technology. The fusion reaction produced 3.15 megajoules of energy, more than the first successful attempt. Earlier this year, scientists at the laboratory JET in it United Kingdom They achieved greater energy production through a fusion process than ever before. This achievement came during the laboratory’s final experiment after four decades of fusion research.
While this is promising, scientists are quick to emphasize that this does not mean we are close to achieving nuclear fusion on a commercial scale. Dr. Aneeqa Khan, nuclear fusion researcher at the University of Manchester, explained: “For atoms to fuse on Earth, we need temperatures ten times hotter than the Sun, around 100 million degrees Celsius, and we need a sufficiently high density of atoms and for a sufficient time.” The laboratory experiment JET It produced 69 megajoules of energy in five seconds, equivalent to the energy for about four or five hot baths. This means that researchers are still far from achieving the results necessary to develop fusion power plants. However, this achievement brings the industry one step closer to the goal of the merger.
Comparison between nuclear fission and nuclear fusion
Nuclear fission, the nuclear energy process used today, occurs when a neutron collides with a larger atom, forcing it to become excited and split into two smaller atoms. Additional neutrons are also released, which can start a chain reaction. When each atom splits, it releases a large amount of energy. Uranium and plutonium are used to power nuclear power reactors because they are easy to start and control. The energy released in these reactors, using fission, heats water to turn it into steam, which is used to spin a turbine and produce carbon-free electricity.
In contrast, nuclear fusion is the process that powers stars. It can be achieved by heating and forcing tiny particles together to create a heavier one, which releases energy. If scientists can figure out how to successfully scale this process to commercial levels, it could produce large amounts of clean energy without carbon emissions. It would also offer a much more stable source of clean energy than wind and solar energy.
While most scientists agree that we are still a long way from achieving fusion on the scale needed to power a nuclear plant, that is not discouraging companies from investing heavily in the sector. In 2023, Microsoft signed a power purchase agreement with Helion Energywhich states that the energy company will provide the tech giant with fusion energy in about five years. Helion It hopes to bring a plant online by 2028, with the goal of generating 50 MW of power. Just 1 MW is enough to power around 1,000 homes in USA for a day.
Helion Energy and its seventh generation machine, Polaris
Helion hopes that its seventh generation machine, Polaris, come into operation next year to provide electricity using pulsed high-power magnet technologies to achieve fusion. It was the first private company to reach 100 million degrees Celsius and has high hopes of scaling its technology. David Kirtley, founder and CEO of Helionstated: “Fifty megawatts is a great first step toward commercial-scale fusion, and the proceeds are reinvested in developing more power plants and bringing fusion to the grid both in USA as internationally as quickly as possible.”
Helion has so far raised $612 million in venture capital, with the potential to raise an additional $1.8 billion in funding if it meets its promised deadlines. It has received another $8.97 million in federal grants. OpenAI has also invested heavily in Helion, around $375 million to date. This month, the CEO and co-founder of OpenAISam Altman, allegedly started conversations with Helion on purchasing fusion-generated electricity for its data centers.
Altman stated in the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year: “There is no way to get there without a breakthrough… We need fusion or we need radically cheaper solar with storage or something on a massive scale.” While there is great excitement around the potential of producing abundant clean energy through nuclear fusion, and this will undoubtedly require a lot of financing, companies could be getting ahead of themselves by making power purchase agreements.
The long-term outlook for commercial nuclear fusion
There is a general consensus among scientists that we are unlikely to achieve nuclear fusion on a commercial scale until the second half of the century. Researchers have repeatedly predicted that fusion will be available within 20, 30, or 50 years over the past few decades, with no real way of knowing how long it will take. Steven Cowley, director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratoryexplains: “Suppose we get a pilot plant up and running by the late 2030s, although that would be quick,” such a plant is unlikely to be a model for commercialization, and therefore, he says, “I think “You would have another stage of about 10 years from a pilot plant to the first commercial reactor.”
Despite the challenges and uncertainty surrounding the development of nuclear fusion, recent advances and growing investment in the sector indicate that the possibility of a future clean energy source is being taken seriously. With continued international collaboration and investment in research and development, the promise of nuclear fusion could one day become a tangible reality. Until then, industry and scientists must continue to work together to overcome the technical and financial obstacles that still lie ahead.
