Fusion Reactors - The key to the abundant and clear energy

There can be no disputes over the claim that the 21^st century is going to achieve some great milestones in the field of nuclear energy, may it be the nuclear-powered vehicles or the nuclear fusion reactors. Even the tech-giants from all over the world are showing their interests in this abundant and clean energy source. Recently, Google tied-up with the Tri Alpha Energy, a leading nuclear fusion company to develop a new algorithm to significantly improve the speeds of experimentation of plasma, a must-needed material state to achieve the nuclear fusion on the earth.

There are two ways – Nuclear Fission and Nuclear Fusion in which the nucleus of an atom can be utilized to achieve an abundant source of energy, a long-cherished dream of mankind. Nuclear fission refers to the breakdown of heavy nuclei into lighter nuclei and thereby liberating their binding energy whereas the nuclear fusion refers to the fusion of lighter nuclei into one another to produce an abundant amount of energy. While the nuclear fission is the process used in the atom-bombs and the nuclear reactors, the fusion process is the process which generates the infinite amount of energy in the cores of the sun and the other stars. Scientists and researchers from all over the world have been successfully using the nuclear fission process for nearly a century for various purposes but when it comes to the nuclear fusion, it’s still a dream for us.

The greatest challenge for the fusion process is to overcome the mutual attraction of the nucleons before they can fuse together into another element. The amount of energy needed to overcome such a great force requires a very high temperature of the range of millions of degrees. There are two ways of achieving such a high temperature: - MCF (Magnetic Confinement Fusion) and ICF (Inertial Confinement Fusion).

 MCF utilizes plasma to achieve the required temperature for the fusion.

The production of plasma is a challenge but the even bigger challenge its confinement. No material can hold plasma at such a high temperature and so the only option left is holding plasma without any physical contact. This is achieved by the magnetic confinement devices which hold the plasma using a very strong magnetic field. There are certain magnetic confinement devices but the most 

common device is the Tokamak reactor which holds the plasma inside a toroidal shaped magnetic field.

ICF utilizes some external energy source, mostly the LASER source to concentrate the heat on the outer surface of the cluster of fuel. Due to the heat concentration, the outer surface of the fuel bursts outward applying a reaction force on the inner surface of the fuel. Due to the reaction force, the fuel is compressed inward leading to the rise in temperature and if the enough temperature is achieved, it leads to the inception of the fusion process. Though MCF is witnessing many challenges, it is the most promising way of achieving the nuclear fusion.

The researches for the successful nuclear fusion is being carried out since the 20^th century but in the past few decades, the researches have gained a boost due to the parallel advancements in the field of Superconductor and Electromagnetic technology, Material sciences etc. The Tokamak reactors have been in the existence since the 1950s with the largest Tokamak project being constructed is the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in France. The ST40, UK’s newest fusion reactor had brought good news in the last week of April 2017 by successfully generating its first plasma sample. The aim of the researchers is to achieve a temperature of 15 million degrees Celsius in the core of the ST40 by the end of this year and ultimately a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius (which is almost 7 times the temperature at the core of the Sun) by the end of 2018. The Tokamak Energy, the company behind the ST40 targets to provide the cleaner fusion energy to the UK by 2030. Another milestone was achieved by the South Korean researchers who successfully hold the plasma of the temperature of 300 million degrees for 70 seconds.

Over the years, many types of research have been and are being carried out across the world to achieve the successful nuclear fusion but still, there are many hurdles to overcome before the dream of the fusion energy can become a reality. Holding plasma for 70 seconds may be a milestone but it’s not enough to power the grids around the world. Many research firms and tech-giants are collaborating and we’re seeing the more numbers of the tokamaks in these years which are a sign that the days are not far when the world will no more be reliant on the petroleum products to power itself.

Hoping for that day to come soon, stay updated to gain insights about many more interesting researches and technologies.