How important is fusion power? Well, it could literally save humanity – so yeah, it’s important.
The problem? It’s not quite there yet, and we need it now.
For anyone who doesn’t know, our current nuclear reactors use fission power to generate electricity. Fission power is created by splitting atoms to release huge amounts of energy, but it leaves behind very toxic waste that will be around for up to 10,000 years. Imagine that? We get electricity and our descendants will still be dealing with radioactive waste in 10,000 years. Okay, that might be a moot point since I really doubt our species will be around in 10,000 years. On a positive note, I’m sure that if we survive the next 10,000 years, we will develop ways to permanently dispose of this deadly waste.
The other kind of nuclear reaction is fusion. That’s how the sun and all the stars in the universe continue to shine. Atoms are fused together at extremely high temperatures and pressure – resulting in vast amounts of energy being released. Fusion does not produce the same toxic waste that fission does.
Okay, I’m not an expert, so that’s as far as I’ll go on that. The internet is full of information if you want to delve deeper.
The problem we have here on earth is that it’s impossible to recreate the same conditions present in a star. To date, we have managed to sustain a controlled nuclear fusion reaction for just 5 seconds – and that just happened a few weeks ago. Up until then, the reaction was measured in fractions of a second.
Though 5 seconds may not seem like much, the international community is jumping for joy that we got at least 5 seconds worth. Their reasoning is that if 5 seconds is possible, it’s only a matter of time before we see a self-sustaining reaction.
To achieve fusion, we have to increase the temperature to 10x of what you’d find in the core of our sun. Seems to me that this is needed to compensate for the lack of pressure that stars take for granted. Fact check me on that for sure.
Now the bad news.
We are still in the infancy stage when it comes to nuclear fusion. It will be decades before we are producing our everyday power through fusion. Though we need this now, in reality, it will be powering our society in the later half of this century, rather than the first half. We still have to get over several roadblocks. One is obviously sustaining a fusion reaction, another is the ability to produce more power than we put in, and another is engineering and building commercial reactors and getting them online.
And that’s if we have the will to proceed. Money and politics are sure to be a problem. The oil industry is not just going to roll over as fusion replaces fossil fuels. Oil has such a stranglehold on our economy that it’s inconceivable that it’ll just disappear some day. Yet, that’s inevitable; as everyone knows it’s a finite resource. We have no choice.
Our use of fossil fuels has to stop now, but without a replacement, we are destined to keep polluting our atmosphere until something like fusion is ready to replace it. Meanwhile, the temperature keeps ratcheting up.
What if we simply assigned more importance to developing fusion power? Each country in the world could contribute a portion of their GDP towards developing this technology. Nothing is more important at this point. It should supersede all nationalities, political parties, religions… everything. Forget going to Mars, developing a moon base, space exploration, excessive military spending and other extravagances. We all need to come together as a planet to get this done or we are in trouble. It should be an “all hands on deck/5-alarm emergency.”
Yet, I doubt it will happen. The global temperatures will pass the point of no return while we are arguing over politics and fighting over the rest of the oil in the ground. What happens after that is our own fault.
Still, I’m hopeful.
It’s going to be a photo finish.
