March 29, 2024

Will nuclear fusion meet global energy needs in the future?

Will nuclear fusion meet global energy needs in the future?

In the future, global energy requirements can be covered by nuclear fusion. Science has measured a new record for fusion energy.

The basics in brief

  • Nuclear fusion can generate energy.
  • Fusion energy is a highly sustainable form of energy that is safe for production.
  • The researchers have now measured a new energy record.

Sustainable energy, produced safely and with low carbon, has always been a research dream. Scientists have now demonstrated once again the potential of the fusion energy generated by nuclear fusion.

Scientists have produced unprecedented amounts of power for fusion experiments at a testing facility for developing nuclear fusion reactors in the United Kingdom.

Researchers from the European network Eurofusion released 59 megajoules of energy in the form of heat during a five-second plasma pulse. This was announced by the Julich Research Center Wednesday.

Generating global energy demand through nuclear fusion

The previous record was 21.7 megajoules. A megajoule can boil about three liters of water at 20 degrees. Fusion energy is a form of energy in the future and is under development.

The results “provide the clearest evidence to date of the potential of fusion energy to provide safe, sustainable, and low-carbon energy.” This was announced by the Research Center.

Fusion reactors could cover a significant portion of global energy needs thousands of years into the future. Eurofusion’s goal is to make this energy source usable. With the fusion energy record, an “important milestone on the way there” has been reached.

International project – no greenhouse gas emissions

Ulich researchers and engineers work at the testing facility in the British county of Oxfordshire. At the JET (Joint European Ring) nuclear fusion test facility, the combustion wall is designed and built for areas that receive heat and particle loads.

JET entered service in 1983. A follow-up project in fusion research – ITER – is currently being built in southern France. It aims to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States participate.

One kilogram of fusion fuel contains about ten million times the energy of one kilogram of coal, oil or gas. This is what the research center said. When used, no greenhouse gases will be released. In the process of nuclear fusion, light atomic nuclei such as those of hydrogen are fused together.

At a temperature of more than a hundred million degrees, these particles can overcome their electrical repulsion and fuse into heavier nuclei such as helium. Huge amounts of energy are released in the process.

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