The Theory of Nothing

Will we ever harness fusion?

Will we ever harness fusion?

Fusion is the process that powers the sun and is used in hydrogen bombs. However, the harnessing of this fundamental power has escaped science for more than sixty years of trying.

As you know, fusion is the powerful energy that occurs when two hydrogen nuclei collide with enough force to come close enough to have the strong nuclear force overcome the electrostatic force repelling them and fuse into a helium nucleus. The strong nuclear force is responsible for keeping those pesky quarks stable in the protons and neutrons that make up an atomic nucleus.

The only way to make fusion happen is by heating hydrogen up to millions of degrees and exerting tremendous pressure. This is easily accomplished inside the sun’s core, but not in the conditions we find on Earth.

So, how the heck do they cause fusion in a hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb? The answer is relatively simple: they use an atomic bomb to generate the extreme heat and pressure to cause fusion in a container of solid Lithium deuteride, an inorganic salt of lithium. The deuteride part is deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen that can be fused.

Unfortunately, that’s not a very practical method to make a fusion power generator. It’s rather messy.

Actually, there have been many attempts to make a fusion power plant. The most tried method is to use a bunch of powerful lasers to heat up plasma held in check by a Tokamak. A Tokamak is a powerful magnetic field confinement device that can hold deuterium or tritium plasma in a toroidal field so that when it fuses it won’t destroy its surroundings. This is the method that has gained the most interest and seems to be the only one that could lead to controlled fusion.

The main problem that has plagued fusion power research is the inability to get a net energy out of the process. In other words, the amount of power needed to fuse has to result in a net increase in power otherwise the idea is useless.

In September of 2013, scientists did achieve this milestone. They obtained a net increase in power, but only for a fraction of a second. This is the holy grail of fusion research and it has generated the prediction that we will soon see a working fusion power plant, maybe by as soon as 2017.

There are many difficulties to overcome in this fusion power plant idea, but it will lead to a gentler impact to the environment because it produces far less radioactive waste than conventional nuclear power plants. Another big advantage is that there is an almost unlimited supply of fuel for this. Deuterium, although a less available isotope of hydrogen, could sustain fusion power generation for billions of years. Also is the fact that fusion power releases no greenhouse gases and the advantage of this kind of power is not limited by scale like wind or solar power. All they would have to do to create more power is build bigger power plants.

Here’s to the future and a sane use for fusion.

Thanks for reading.