Everyone is aware of nuclear power generating plants and nuclear weapons that are based on a process known as nuclear fission which, while effective, creates dangerous radiation and radioactive wastes (e.g., Three Mile Island and Fukushima ).
An alternative nuclear power is nuclear fusion; the same process that powers our sun and the stars. Daunting technical problems in duplicating it on earth due to the high temperatures required resulted in the quip that “fusion power is 30 years away, and always will be.” However, unlike fission, fusion is free of fission’s radioactivity issues, promising limitless clean energy once made technically feasible.
In what may be one of technology’s most important moments, this week, “For the first time ever, scientists successfully produced more energy from a nuclear fusion experiment than the laser energy used to power it.” This is akin to earlier transitions that moved us from wood to coal and then coal to oil but with far great possibilities.
It may be years before fusion generated power is commercially and widely available, but a significant corner has been turned and we seem to have finally gone from “if” to “when.” A graphic and short article from Visual Capitalist provides an excellent non-technical overview of fusion: “The Science of Nuclear Fusion.”
