Fusing up the Future

Nuclear scientists used to say fusion was always 20 years away. 2022 December has demonstrated us that it may be much closer. December 13th 2022 made a tremendous remark for human civilisation because of the success by physicists of the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, California, on fusion. Everybody was trying to imitate the energy generation of sun but it was now we got a break-through in the fusion technology.

What is Fusion?

Fusion is the source of our life.

Keep in mind this point, I will get back to it later.

In simple terms fusion, as the word suggests it's the combining of two things together to form a new product. When it comes to nuclei level it is much more difficult. The combining of the above mentioned nucleus is far more difficult since they repel when they come closer. To make them fuse we need to exert more energy. When they fuse together we get a product which is lighter in mass than the reactants, keep in mind Einstein's Energy Equation (E = mc2). The reduced mass is available as the heat energy.

Now, lets dive back to the starting point about the source of our life, as we all know sun is the power house of our earth and it is constantly producing energy using the fusion reaction. Hydrogen present in the sun's atmosphere combines to form helium resulting in heat and light, which we use as energy source.

Why Fusion is a Big Deal?

It's been nearly half a century we are trying to mimic the energy production of the sun. But till now we were having a tough luck on fusion. Even though we are using fission technology for energy production its vey different from its counterpart, the fusion. The energy created after fission reaction comes with a big headache, that is, the radioactive waste. The disposal of radioactive waste is still a huge problem. The spill will be very dangerous for both human and environment.

As I mentioned earlier we are trying for decades to have a result in this field. There is a joke among the physicists that 'Fusion is always 20 years away'. So this is the first time we actually made a huge progress in fusion. This is the first time we got result energy more than input energy, that is, we got the output 50% more than the input. In this process after creating energy there will not be any radioactive waste rather there will be only an inert gas, that is, Helium, which will not react with anything even if we released to the environment.

How it Works?

Physicists have created lasers to bombard the hydrogen isotopes. They developed a set of 192 lasers to bombard the pellets of hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium. This will help to raise the temperature equally around the isotopes. When the temperature increases the kinetic energy also increases, the step by step increase in temperature will increase the kinetic energy of the ions. By this method physicists were successful to attain a temperature only found in the stars and thermonuclear bombs. During this magical temperature the hydrogen isotopes fuse together generating heat energy due to the mass reduction of the resulting helium.

An artist's rendering of laser beams entering a capsule containing deuterium and tritium at the National Ignition Facility in California. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy

Conclusion

Even though everything finds amazing we can't believe that it will be any helpful for restricting the temperature raise and lower it by 2 degree Celsius to match pre industrial period. But it will still take time for making it commercially available. The interest of investors and entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos in the field gives a hope for the commercial development in the sector.

If everything goes well and we got the energy through fusion we can get clean and unlimited energy for the growth of humanity. The over dependence of the fossil fuels, which pollutes the nature can be replaced by this method. The carbon footprint for the fusion reaction is zero, so technically we are one step closer to the clean energy abundant 'sci-fi' future.