March 28, 2024

Nuclear fusion: New technology can shrink reactors

Considered the holy grail of energy production: nuclear fusion. If it were possible to simulate the sun on Earth and fuse hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei on a large scale, almost all of today’s energy problems would be solved in one fell swoop. Just one gram of fuel can generate 90,000 kilowatt-hours of energy in a power plant. The heat of combustion is about 11 tons of coal. But this requires extreme conditions. It takes temperatures of several million degrees Celsius and sophisticated hot plasma control technology. Until now, all of this has only been possible on an experimental scale — and without any significant energy return.