Often considered the challenge of this century, a major breakthrough for nuclear fusion took place on Monday. Let’s see how.
A dream often compared to the plane, nuclear fusion had a major breakthrough on Monday that increased hopes for the technology. Researchers in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, have managed to gain a net positive energy outcome from a nuclear fusion.
The experiment produced 2.5 megajoules of energy out of a 2.1 megajoule reaction. A 120% net gain, the first time it happened since the 1950s when the theoretical possibilities of nuclear fusion were developed.
"This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion—at a time when we’ve never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy!” Tweeted Arthur Turrell, deputy director of the National Statistics Office for the UK.
But we already have nuclear power, right? Why is this such an important development for a technology that already exists?
The nuclear energy that powers our cities uses fission, not fusion. The semantics might be similar, but the difference is enormous.
What is nuclear fission and how does it work
Nuclear fission, the type of nuclear power we already use every day, comes from the separation of atoms. The fuel for such plants is very heavy and radioactive, as it’s the one that yields more energy when its atoms are separated.
Uranium and Plutonium are the two most common types of nuclear fuel used for fission. Inside the reactor, atoms of Uranium are shot with electrons, causing a division of the nucleus and the release of a massive amount of energy. This energy, which also causes heat, is then used to boil water whose vapors make a turbine spin. Through such spin, electricity is created.
Nuclear fission does not release any sort of carbon emissions in the atmosphere, being as sustainable as solar, wind and hydro power. Its use, however, has often scared the general population and many environmentalist groups think it should be abandoned.
Safety, for example, is one of the major concerns. Though nuclear power is statistically safer than most other energy sources (even considering the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents), people seem irrationally scared about it.
Another worry that often strives people away from nuclear fission is nuclear waste. Sometimes extremely radioactive, nuclear waste is considered a safety hazard for anyone that lives near store facilities. Again, in reality nuclear waste is no more dangerous than waste from fossil fuels, while also being much less in quantity and much more controlled.
Despite the scientific evidence, however, people are nevertheless scared about nuclear fission. Nuclear fusion, however, seems to solve all these problems.
What is nuclear fusion and what is its difference from fission
Nuclear fusion is the union of small atoms to create bigger ones. It is the fusion that powers our own Sun, deep inside its core, and releases an amount of energy even bigger than that of fission (when works properly).
Nuclear fusion in general uses much less harmful materials than Uranium and Plutonium. Some prototipes of fusion reactors can create radioactive material, and it is one of the challenges the technology currently faces.
Indeed, nuclear fusion has already been created. The problem is… it seems to be impossible to sustain it for a long period of time. The nuclear fusions realized so far lasted for a fraction of a second: keeping them “on” for longer burns out more energy than it creates.
That was until now, when a group of scientists managed to obtain a net positive gain in energy from a nuclear fusion reactor. This definitely increased the hype around this energy source, though we are still far from an industrial use.
Nuclear fusion has been tried for decades, but the final result always seems far out of grasp. So was the invention of flight, however. It was researched and tried for almost a century, and many just thought it was humanly impossible.
And then, suddenly, the Wright Brothers made humans fly.
