Fusion: And What The Smartest Guys In The Room Are Doing With It I previously wrote an article� Fusion: The Ultimate Green Energy�. In that article I discuss how the breakthrough of fusion technology would revolutionize energy production in the world and immediately eliminate the need for fossil fuels ever again. (Read complete article here) Recent advances in magnet technology have enabled researchers at MIT to propose a new design for a practical compact fusion reactor. The reality of commercially viable fusion power, could be realized within the decade. This breakthrough would be an inexhaustible energy resource, and one of the most important technologies ever known to man. While fission continues to power our nuclear reactors today, fusion offers a cleaner, safer source of energy. Fission is when an atom is split into two smaller fragments, creating an explosion of sorts and resulting in the release of heat energy. Fusion, is the nuclear reaction that powers the sun, and involves fusing pairs of hydrogen atoms together to form helium, resulting in an enormous releases of energy. The biggest hurdle in harnessing fusion has been confining the working material of a fusion reaction which is superhot plasma, all while heating it to temperatures hotter than the cores of stars. Newly available superconductors, are now able to produce high-magnetic field coils, confine the superhot plasma. This effectively traps all the heat and particles in the hot center of the device. The heat energy created using a compact fusion reactor would drive turbine generators. These turbines then generate electricity, or power that could be used in a number of different applications.
Fusion: And What The Smartest Guys In The Room Are Doing With It
While the proposed reactor design by the MIT researchers would be much smaller device than those previously envisioned, a group from Lockheed Martin are taking the reduction in size, a step further. These researchers are working on perfecting a reactor small enough to fit on a truck, yet could provide enough energy to power a small city of up to 100,000 people. This concept uses all of the potential of a magnetic field pressure, which allows them to make a devices 10 times smaller than previous concepts. That means a device that would have to be housed in a large building, could now fit on the back of a truck.
Fusion: And What The Smartest Guys In The Room Are Doing With It By creating a concept that can be contained using a magnetic bottle that is able to handle the extremely hot temperatures, which reach hundreds of millions of degrees, they can contain the reaction. This can be released in a controlled fashion to create energy we can use. With the applications of finally harnessing the power of fusion are limitless, we are still a ways off from realizing this potential world changer. We can continue to reach for the stars, while groups like the teams at MIT and Lockheed Martin continue to attempt to harness them.
Matt Helland SVP NAEA