For as long as I can remember practical power generation using nuclear fusion was just around the corner. Is it reaching the last corner?
Believe it or not, America is nearing the threshold of a fusion future. By the end of 2012, scientists at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California plan to fire the most powerful laser ever constructed into a small chamber with pea-sized fuel pellets inside. The fusion fuel contained within the pellets, two isotopes of hydrogen — deuterium and tritium — will fuse together, producing helium, a free neutron, and massive amounts of energy in the form of heat. If all goes to plan, about ten to one hundred times more energy than the amount used to ignite the fuel will be unleashed.
With this monumental breakthrough achieved, construction could begin on a fusion power plant capable of producing 400 megawatts of base-load power, with a target completion date in the early 2020s. Capital costs would roughly be the same as a current nuclear fission power plant, between $6 and $7 billion. It’s a daunting cost to be sure, but one well worth funding. Besides providing a blueprint for future fusion plants, investment in such a facility will drive innovation in multitudes of fields ranging from optics to materials science.
After the completion of the fusion test plant, construction of commercial facilities producing between 1,000 and 1,500 megawatts of fusion power can get underway. These power plants will produce electricity that’s hard to find fault with. The energy will be base-load — always available. It will be clean — there will be no carbon dioxide emissions or hazardous waste. It will be cheap — early estimates show fusion power to be cost-competitive with coal, even without a carbon tax. It will be nearly limitless — up to 30 million years of fusion fuel exists on Earth. And most importantly, it will be made in America — Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) has been produced entirely within the United States.
Generating electrical power from nuclear fusion would be a gigantic breakthrough, a gamechanger. Not only would it generate inexpensive electrical power but it would do so without the security problems and environmental hazards presented by nuclear fission although fusion would not be completely without environmental issues.
However, I’ve been disappointed before. We’ll see.
Huge game changer, but the early 2020’s is hopelessly optimistic. It could take a decade just to build the plant once all the engineering is done, which it isn’t, even assuming this experiment works.
I’ll believe it when I see it. We’ve had promises from laser-initiated fusion advocates before, and tons of the data from Livermore is classified because they’re also planning to use it to simulate nuclear weapons testing that they can no longer do.
I agree that early 2020s is rather unrealistic. We don’t even know if it will be cost-effective to operate a laser-initiated fusion plant yet.
Asked my son to send out a message on the geek line. They seem pretty optimistic about this. Guess we will see.
Steve
It will be clean — there will be no carbon dioxide emissions or hazardous waste.
The energy production might come close to this, but building the plant and everything else won’t be without carbon costs at some point in the process.
Also, I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve been hearing this stuff since the late 1970s, IIRC.
With a little effort I think I could put my hands on a magazine article that asserted it from the late 50s or early 60s.
Yeah, I’m just talking about when _I_ remember hearing/reading about it back when I was nine or ten years old and reading Popular Mechanics and such. I’m pretty sure I have some old sci-fi stuff around here, including the odd science fact and prediction article, making claims from farther back.
Also, I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve been hearing this stuff since the late 1970s, IIRC.
Well, ice pick, I think you have nailed the essence of the issue. I know I have posted here before that I was going to save the world by capturing those mean sulfur dioxide atoms with the iron inherent in coal.
Didn’t work.
Back to the drawing board……..