When people consider nuclear power, they think fission. The emergence of nuclear reactors in the 20th century sought uranium and plutonium isotopes as fuel sources, not hydrogen and helium. While fission is one method of harnessing atomic energy, and the first to be commercialized, other approaches exist. In this episode, we dive into an alternative method called nuclear fusion. If fission breaks things down, fusion builds them up. The net result: energy.

Nuclear fusion has been hiding around us in plain sight. Look up into the sky and you see fusion at work, powering the stars in this galaxy, including our Sun. Light hydrogen isotopes, usually deuterium and tritium, are fused together to form helium and energy is released. The main challenge researchers face is how to recreate a mini-Sun here on Earth. Fusion requires at least one of the following ingredients: extreme pressure or temperature. The first component, pressure, requires gravity pushing down on a star's core to enable fusion. Unfortunately, it is not feasible to simulate extreme pressure on Earth so researchers opt for the second component, temperature. Using tokamaks, doughnut-shaped vessels with walls lined by supercooled coils, research teams can contain a plasma 10x hotter than the Sun's core using strong magnetic fields.

This brings us to recent fusion experiments done at the Joint European Torus in late 2021. Scientists were able to sustain a suspended plasma for 5 seconds with heat production that more than double the previous record set back in 1997. The bottom line, positive advancements in nuclear fusion are providing the green light for the construction of ITER in southern France, which will become the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor and involve collaborations with scientists from over thirty countries. 

Nuclear fusion will not be commercially available to address immediate climate concerns, but it holds promise as becoming a suitable renewable power source sometime this century. Only time will tell.

We hope you enjoy!