View article here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-h-bailey/fusion-energy-hope-or-hype_b_6031968.html
Fusion energy is perhaps the most promising energy source for the future. It is virtually infinitely renewable, produces insane amounts of energy, and doesn't have harmful byproducts, and is essentially a energy "utopia". The article talks about how other energy sources harm the environment. However, there are so many problems with its development and practicality that experts don't expect it to be in widespread use anytime in the near future. In order to fully understand the article, some background knowledge of nuclear fusion is required.
Nuclear fusion occurs when two atoms are heated to such high temperatures that they overcome the forces of repulsion between them and combine, releasing exponentially large amounts of energy. Nuclear fusion generally happens in stars, where the pressure and heat is so high that hydrogen is created and fused into helium. This type of fusion is not practical on Earth due to the extreme pressure and heat requirements. The most promising and common fusion reactors on the Earth directly fuse two different hydrogen isotopes and create helium.
The problems with nuclear fusion are daunting. First, numerous budget cuts have impeded fusion researchers across the globe. (See: Projected Budget vs Actual Budget in the US) Second, reaching such high temperatures is extremely difficult, and there are only a couple known ways to attain this kind of temperature. The article outlines the difficulty of attaining, maintaining, and controlling such high temperatures. The main problem with fusion is that reaching the conditions for fusion and forcing the atoms to fuse requires much more energy than is created by the reaction. A breakeven is when the energy input equals the energy output. No fusion reactor has ever reached a breakeven, so fusion remains a non-viable energy source.
In 1964, Russian astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev formulated a theory that the advancement of a civilization is influenced by and correlated to the amount of energy that can be controlled and used by it. A Type I civilization can utilize an entire planet's energy (~10^16W), a Type II civilization can harness a solar system's energy (~10^26W), and the almighty Type III civilization can use all of the energy of an entire galaxy(~10^36W). Humans are currently a Type ~0.7 civilization. If nuclear fusion is mastered, it could be the biggest advancement ever in the field of energy, akin to the modern computer and lightbulb, and would bring humans up to the standard of a Type I civilization. As stated in the article, we would have hit "the green energy jackpot".
For more on nuclear fusion reactors, visit this link or go to the ITER website.
For basic nuclear science see http://www.nuclearconnect.org/know-nuclear/science
See the article about the future human race and Type X species here.
Do you think with the current modern technology we have, we can explore farther than nuclear fusion with beneficial results?
ReplyDeleteI don't quite understand your question, Harry. What do you mean by "farther" than nuclear fusion? Anyway, the answer is probably no because we still haven't mastered nuclear fusion. No fusion reactor has ever put out more energy than put in. I believe the current record is the JET(Joint European Torus) which output 65% of the energy put in. However, clarifying your question might help me answer it better.
DeleteAbout how much energy is produced by fusing one atom to another? Enough to power a lightbulb or enough to power a household? Or do you need many fusions of molecules to release that much energy?
ReplyDeleteThe energy produced by nuclear fusion is 10,000,000 times that of a gasoline combustion reaction. Each deuterium-tritium reaction releases 17.6 MeV of energy. This isn't even close to the amount needed to power a lightbulb, but in a conventional reactor there could be trillions of individual reactions. If done right, the reaction is also self-sustaining, not requiring any energy to keep it going. A single fusion reactor releases about 7 billion kilowatt-hours in a year. This one reactor is enough to power a city.
DeleteYou said this nuclear fusion requires extreme amount of heat and energy. How will we contain this in a artificiallu created chamber?
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most difficult parts of nuclear fusion. A normal fusion reactor uses extreme magnetic fields that prevent the incredibly heated material from touching anything. These magnetic fields are 200,000 times that of Earth's. The fuel for the reaction is shot into the chamber in pellets cold and fast enough to make it to the middle of the chamber.
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