According to MIT scientists, nuclear fusion will be reality within 15 years.
"The aspiration is to have a working power plant in time to combat climate change. We think we have the science, speed and scale to put carbon-free fusion power on the grid in 15 years," said Bob Mumgaard, CEO of the private company Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
It's clean, it's a combustion-free source of energy with zero-carbon. And not only, if you fuse atoms together in a controlled way, around four million times more energy is released compared to burning coal or gas and four times as much as nuclear fusion reactors. Fusion fuels are also widely available and nearly inexhaustible. Nuclear fusion also doesn't produce any long-lived radioactive waste. The materials can be recycled or reused within 100 years, compared to plutonium which has a half-life of up to 24,000 years. With nuclear fusion there's also no risk of meltdown - if any disturbance occurs in the reactor, the plasma cools within seconds and the reaction stops. That's the theory anyway.
Obviously in most simple terms, it's not an easy task to make fusion power into reality. For fusion to occur, a temperature of at least 100 million degrees Celsius is needed, and this amount is around six times hotter than the core of the sun.
Will nuclear fusion become a reality within 15 years? Only time will tell.
"The aspiration is to have a working power plant in time to combat climate change. We think we have the science, speed and scale to put carbon-free fusion power on the grid in 15 years," said Bob Mumgaard, CEO of the private company Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
Why nuclear fusion?
It's clean, it's a combustion-free source of energy with zero-carbon. And not only, if you fuse atoms together in a controlled way, around four million times more energy is released compared to burning coal or gas and four times as much as nuclear fusion reactors. Fusion fuels are also widely available and nearly inexhaustible. Nuclear fusion also doesn't produce any long-lived radioactive waste. The materials can be recycled or reused within 100 years, compared to plutonium which has a half-life of up to 24,000 years. With nuclear fusion there's also no risk of meltdown - if any disturbance occurs in the reactor, the plasma cools within seconds and the reaction stops. That's the theory anyway.
Why don't we have nuclear fusion power yet?
Obviously in most simple terms, it's not an easy task to make fusion power into reality. For fusion to occur, a temperature of at least 100 million degrees Celsius is needed, and this amount is around six times hotter than the core of the sun.
Will nuclear fusion become a reality within 15 years? Only time will tell.
|
Some of our content may be related to gambling.    |