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Fusion is the energy source of the universe, it is the process that powers the sun and the stars. In a fusion reaction, the nuclei of two light atoms fuse together to form heavier ones, releasing large amounts of energy. Scientists from all over the world develop fusion power on earth, as it offers the prospect of a long-term, safe, environmentally benign energy option to meet the energy needs of a growing world population.
Fusion
Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun, will play the major part in the carbon-free energy future, Scientists and engineers are working around the globe to develop fusion as a new source of clean energy for tomorrow's power stations.
Unlike the current nuclear power stations using Fission (splitting of atoms) with all its associated radio active nuclear waste problems Fusion works by combining atoms to release large amounts of energy and no nuclear waste problems.
The first patent for a fusion reactor was in 1946 by Sir George Paget Thomson and Moses Blackman for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
The original TORUS fusion research was done in Russia in the 1950s but it was at the Culham research laboratories in Oxfordshire UK took this design forwards in the 1980s, unfortunately the government gave it very little for Research and was taken over in Europe and became the Joint European Torus (JET)
Later when other nations became more involved after the break even experiments came ITER, which means "the way" in Latin, is a large-scale international experiment in France that aims to demonstrate it is possible to produce commercial energy from fusion.
Helium 3 (Tritium)
The future of safe fusion
Hydrogen-3 (Tritium) is an isotope of hydrogen and will be the fuel for second-generation fusion reactors combining helium-3 (3He) and deuterium (2H). Helium 3 is very rare on earth due to its half life being only 12.32 years instead of the vast lethal half life of 48000 years of plutonium used in current fission power stations , how can we possibly protect the radio active waste for 100,000+ years????.
Fusion by Laser Ignition
From the starwars research in the 1980-90 came some advanced laser research that has now being used in an experiment to cause nuclear fusion by firing high power lasers into a very very small fuel pellet target. this USA experiment is called the National Ignition Facility
The NIF & Photon Science Principal Directorate is one of five directorates at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California. The directorate operates the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world´s largest and highest–energy laser, which has the goal of achieving nuclear fusion and energy gain in the laboratory for the first time – in essence, creating a miniature star on Earth.
There is also the preliminary designs for the (HiPER) facility High Power laser Energy Research for possible construction in the European Union.
External News Links (opened in a new window)
BBC: overview of the USA NIF Fusion Laser experiment