Nuclear Fusion, Could it be the solution for clean energy ?

Think of nuclear and many would imagine worse, atomic bombs, reactors melting down, radioactive wastes. There is no denying that history of Nuclear is flawed, and the dramatic and disturbing moments are hard to forget. But for most of the time, nuclear energy operates out of sight and out of our mind, generating about 10% of the worlds total electricity(as of Dec. 2019). This represents almost 23% of the worlds total low carbon power (as of Dec. 2019), and only 2% of India's total energy production(as of march 2020). Nuclear reactors produce energy day and night and produce no green house gases, but overall the growth of nuclear is slowing in comparison to other low carbon sources, like Solar, wind, and Hydro. In a study done by a US university, it was observed that by 2050 all of the worlds 450 nuclear power plants must be replaced and we are far from getting there.

Nuclear power plants are very expensive to build and construction often takes longer than expected. And debates on how to handle radio-active waste rage on. Also, the public opposition to nuclear power is strong, especially in the developed countries. But we are in the midst of a climate crises and many energy experts argue that despite bad history, nuclear has a key role to play as a stable and always available source of power. And as we replace coal, we really do need another source, what we call the spinning form of energy reserve. We know that for large power plants, when the wind is not blowing, or the sky is cloudy, that power is not available. And nuclear could be the best solution for that.

Some experts are working to upgrade the existing nuclear power technology. That means building safer and more efficient fission reactors. With the support of philanthropists, like Bill Gates, by Government labs, private investors and inter governmental organizations are also devoting vast resources, to what many consider as the Holy Grail of energy, Nuclear Fusion.

Nuclear fusion is the same process that powers our Sun and every other star in the universe. And, if we could figure out how to harness that energy here on Earth, it would be a huge game changer.

Nuclear Fusion was discovered in late 1938, by a pair of German researchers. They found out that if you bombard Uranium with neutrons, the nucleus splits forming two lighter isotopes, releasing mass that gets converted into energy. The discovery paved way for the development of Atomic Bomb in the United States. And, after the infamous bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, concerns over nuclear peripheral spiraled as the global nuclear stockpile grew during the Cold War between the US and USSR. But, in 1953, US president Eisenhower's, Atoms for peace process attempted to shift the focus towards the peaceful nuclear energy generation, and much of the world started building Nuclear power plants for civilian use. This led to entry of private players at a very rapid rate, especially in the USA and other developed countries. By 1991, US had 2 times as much nuclear power plants as any other country in the world.

As of Dec. 2019, there are 450 nuclear reactors operating in 31 countries worldwide. In some countries, like France(72%), Hungry(51%), Slovakia(55%) and Ukraine(53%), generate more than half of their electricity using Nuclear power. But, over the decades, a number of high profile disasters have stalled the industries momentum. In 1979, the partial meltdown and insuring radiation leak at 3 mile island in Pennsylvanian costed about USD 1 billion to cleanup. The disaster stoked public fear about nuclear power, stricter safety standards were imposed, reactors became more expensive to build, and fewer were built. The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi in 2011 brought further scrutiny to the industry, as concerns mounted over the long term effect of the exposure. And then there is a battle about where to store nuclear waste. One proposed site the Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been hotly contested in the last 30 years.

The current state of the industry remains mixed. Countries like China, India and Russia are building reactors at a faster rate, and in the US almost 1/3 have turned out to be unprofitable and face uncertain closure and only one new has been build since 1996, as cost and construction time in the developed economies have spiraled. In Europe, a typical Nuclear power plant takes about USD 10 Billion and roughly 10 years to build. The low cos of Solar, wind and in particular Natural Gas has meant that Nuclear not only come in at very expensive proposition but it also means that nuclear is not a very friendly player in the market.

Next Generation fission technologies are much safer then the technologies of the past and some proponents claim that they will be cheaper to, the general public may still need convincing. But one idea has outlasted the controversy, it promise that some day nuclear fusion will provide a better alternative.

Scientists have been researching the nuclear fusion since the 1920's, ever since they learned that this is what powers the Sun. In a fusion reaction, extreme temperatures cause Hydrogen atoms to fuse together forming Helium atoms. In the process the atoms loose some mass, which is converted into vast amounts of energy. The reaction can produce 4 times as much energy as Nuclear Fission, and nearly 4 million times the energy produced by burning fossil fuels. As per Mark Herrmann (Director of The National Ignition Facility Lawrance Livermore National Lab) "It doesn't contribute to Green House gasses, the fuel is plentiful and can be essentially found everywhere in the world. The radio-activity would be short lived, there is no possibility of a runaway reaction. So, it is inherently safe system." But after decades of research and billions of dollars, scientists have not yet found a way to create a sustained Fusion reaction. That has created a not so inside joke among the scientists, that fusion is the energy source of the future and always will be. But, some times these questions and jokes overlook the real progress that have been made.

Fusion have traditionally been the purview of the government labs like, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, Saha Institue and Physical Research lab, but recently a number of private companies have throw their hats in the ring. This includes GeneralFusion, which aims to bring fusion reactors to the market by 2030. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos are among the companies investors. And then there is a large multi national effort that is underway in the south of France called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER), which includes European Union, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The project aims to create the worlds most powerful and biggest fusion nuclear reactor. When all of these players are competing for resources and funding, that could be a good thing for the nuclear power industry overall.

GeneralFusion founded in 2002, operates out a non descriptive office park about 20 km from Vancouver. Unlike most government labs or academic institutions, GeneralFusion is focused on implementation over research. The companies goal is to build an electricity generating fusion reactor in a decade or two. Jeff Bezos was an early investor and the company has now raised over USD 120 million. With about USD 90 million coming from private investment and USD 30 million from the Canadian government. GeneralFusion combines two common approaches in the industry, inertial confinement which subjects the nuclear fuel to extremely high pressure for a brief amount of time, and Magnetic confinement, which uses modest pressure for a long time. When heated to extreme temperature the fusion fuel becomes a plasma (A state of matter similar to gas, except that it contains charged particles, that allows it to conduct electricity and respond to magnetic fields).

Right now, GeneralFusions main components, like its plasma injector, piston array and Fuel chamber, all exist separately. To allow them to integrate into one another and into a large demonstration reactor, a process GeneralFusion estimates would take about 5 years. And when the reactor goes online, the GM says that it will bring GeneralFusions cost of power into competition with coal and renewables, like wind and solar. But some industry experts think that the companies like the GeneralFusion are being overly optimistic with their timeline.

Nuclear Fusion is hard, no research group or company has ever been able to reach the so called even point, at which the energy released from a fusion reaction is equal to or greater then the energy required to heat the plasma used in the reaction. Basic research is the bread and butter of the Lawrance Livermore National Lab, it has been researching fusion since its establishment in 1950s. In 2009, the lab opened the National Ignition Facility , with the aim of achieving break even and ultimately igniting a fusion reaction. Lawerance Livermore is pursuing inertial confinement fusion, i.e., confining plasma at extremily high pressure for a very short amount of time, using high energy lasers to do so. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility and other national labs have access to enormous computing power, allowing them to run complex simulations that help them to understand the exact conditions to reach ignition. As per the simulations it can be said that the facility of the size of NIF, it is possible to achieve the fusion if everything works perfectly. But, clearly getting everything to work perfectly in the real world is much harder then what it looks on the screen. But, in last 10 years NIF has not been able to achieve any results.

It could be well said that neither the well funded government facilities nor the scrappy goal oriented startups are going to solve the fusion puzzle. It might take an international effort, the ITER project, originally known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, originated nearly 35 years ago at the Geniva Super Power Summit. Now European Union, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are all working together to build what would be the worlds largest Tokamak Reactor. The donut shaped device would be used for magnetic confinement reaction. Currently under construction, ITER's Tokamak Reactor would be twice the size of the current largest machine (JET- Joint European Torus) and aims to produce 500 MW of fusion power using 50 MW of heating power. Mark Henderson (Electron Cyclotron Section Leader-ITER Organization) says that ITER is poised to surpass the past previous efforts simply due to the sheer scale of the proposed machine, which builds upon already established machines technologies. Unlike GeneralFusion's ambitions, the immediate goal of ITER is not energy production, though the project thus have an eye towards eventual commercialization. Henderson believes that the ITER will be able to function by 2040 and would be able to give demos for future generations to build upon. He believes that these demos will achieve ignition, opening the doors for industrial scale reactors that would generate electricity for the grid. He also believes that it would not possible to achieve commercialization in our lifetime but it may be possible in out grand kids or great grand kids.

Its a grand vision, but even if ITER hits all its targets, how to translate that into a commercially viable reactor remains somewhat unclear. Henderson says that it is impossible to say that what a Fusion reactor would cost or if the price point would be competitive, there is however a price tag on the ITER itself, and while it is not cheap, it is not exorbitant for an undertaking of this magnitude. ITER is going to cos about USD 20 Billions as per Henderson. Despite the projects obvious potential, funding for ITER can be intermediate and unreliable. As countries like the USA frequently change their contribution size at random due to their election cycle, and energy budget.

Not everyone thinks that Fusion is integral for our survival and public opinion on Nuclear remains split. But, many within the industry say that the controversy is undeserved. CEO of TerraPower, John Gilleland says that "its controversial for those who haven't studied carefully, for those who have studied it carefully its not. You look at mortality rate per unit of energy you produce and nuclear is the lowest of all. But, there is a fear because of its origins". Microsoft's owner Bill gates is in support of these future technologies and belives that building a safer and more efficient fission reactors to reinvigorate the industry. In 2016, he founded TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company that is working on building new Generation Four Reactors. Cris Levesque, CEO of TerraPower says that Terrapower reactors are walk away safe, that means that during emergencies the plant will cool and stabilize itself without an operator present. further more he says that the plant produces 80% less waste and requires less Uranium enrichment, aligning perforation concerns. But getting new fusion technology of the ground is an expensive endeavor, so companies like TerraPower want government support, both to build out their tech and to compete them with cheaper power sources such as Natural gas. Levesque estimates that building TerraPowers first demonstration reactor would cost more than a USD 1 Billion, ideally funded through a Public Private partnership.

So here is where we stand, Fission proponents want to upgrade the present nuclear technologies, Fusion researchers say projects like GeneraFusion and ITER need more investment from both Public and Private sources in order to turn Nuclear Fusion into a reality. And climate change activists say that the world need to de-carbonize using the resources that we have now before its too late. Then if the research and investment comes to bare, we can turn to fusion to support our rapidly growing population. How soon we will reach this fusion power future remains up for debate. However these estimate time frames may rely heavily on how much government decides to invest in fusion power.

Source: CNBC

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