MIT: We Are One Step Away from Nuclear Fusion

The dream of nuclear fusion could finally become a reality thanks to the collaboration of MIT scientists and the private company Commonwealth Fusion Systems, who claim they will successfully create a fusion reaction within 15 years, reports Guardian. The project differs from all previous ones due to a radically different approach to creating fusion.

Specifically, the team of scientists will attempt to create the world’s first fusion reactor using a new class of superconductors that will produce more energy than is needed for the reaction. Such a project is significant for the future of energy as it creates a source of energy with zero hydrogen and combustion.

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However, the problem is that every similar experiment so far has resulted in an energy deficit, which is why it could not produce electrical energy, and decades of failed attempts have led to disbelief in the success of creating fusion.

The usual time frame considered necessary for creating fusion is 30 years, but the team of scientists believes they can achieve the reaction in half that time thanks to the superconductor that will create ultra-strong magnets, which are one of the main elements of a fusion reactor.

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Creating fusion is based on the concept of pressing lighter elements together to form heavier ones. For example, when hydrogen atoms are pressed tightly enough, helium is created, releasing enormous amounts of energy.

Too High Temperature

However, in such a process, net energy can only be produced at extreme temperatures of several hundred million degrees Celsius, which is a temperature higher than that at the center of the Sun, and very few materials could withstand such temperatures.

For this reason, the project will use strong magnetic fields to prevent the hot plasma from coming into contact with any other part of the chamber. The new superconductor is a steel tape coated with a compound of yttrium-barium-copper oxide that will help create smaller, stronger magnets, potentially reducing the amount of energy needed to create the reaction.

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The planned reactor, named SPARC, is far smaller than the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor being built in France. The experimental reactor is intended to produce about 100mW of heat. Although this amount of heat will not be converted into electrical energy, it will produce it in pulses of about 10 seconds, which is equivalent to the energy consumed by a small town. Scientists predict that the reactor will produce twice as much energy as is needed to heat the plasma.

Unlike fossil fuels, fusion reactions will never lead to a hydrogen shortage. Likewise, no greenhouse gases or dangerous radioactive waste, which are produced in conventional fission nuclear reactors, are released during the reaction.