![]() ITER is the biggest throw of the fusion dice yet. “People are saying, ‘If it really is the ultimate solution, let’s find out whether it works or not,’” says Dr Tim Luce, head of science and operation at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), being built in southeast France. There are also over 20 private ventures in the UK, US, Europe, China and Australia vying to be the first to make fusion energy production a reality. Some major technical challenges have been overcome in the past few years and governments around the world have been pouring money into fusion power research. And doing so in a way that produces more energy than the reaction consumes has been beyond the grasp of the finest minds in physics for decades.īut perhaps not for much longer. But overcoming the natural repulsion between atomic nuclei and maintaining the right conditions for fusion to occur isn’t straightforward. It’s the same reaction that’s taking place at the Sun’s core. Nuclear fusion however, involves combining atomic nuclei to release energy. Today’s nuclear power plants create electricity through nuclear fission, in which atoms are split. But things are heating up in what has turned into a race to create what amounts to an artificial sun here on Earth, one that can provide power for our kettles, cars and light bulbs. That’s the promise of nuclear fusion, which for decades has been nothing more than a fantasy due to insurmountable technical challenges. It sounds like the stuff of dreams: a virtually limitless source of energy that doesn’t produce greenhouse gases or radioactive waste. Why the promise of nuclear fusion is no longer a pipe dream ![]()
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