Kristen Schell and Ahmed Abdulla: Nuclear fusion breakthrough: Decades of research are still needed before fusion can be used as clean energy
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. All photos provided by The Conversation from various sources.
Kristen Schell and Ahmed Abdulla are assistant professors in Carleton University’s department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
The U.S. Department of Energy reported a major scientific breakthrough in nuclear fusion science in December 2022. For the first time, more energy was released from a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it.
While this achievement is indeed historic, it’s important to pause and reflect on the way ahead for fusion energy.
We are professors of sustainable and renewable energy engineering at Carleton University, where we research alternative energy technologies and systems that can move us to a low-carbon future.
We also teach our students how to navigate the treacherous terrain from lab-based findings to real-world applications.
Highlights
- The efficiency of a potential fusion energy power plant remains to be seen. The reported fusion net gain actually required about 300 megajoules of energy input, which was not included in the energy gain calculation. This energy input, needed to power 192 lasers, came from the electric power grid.
- Until recently, fusion has been seen primarily as a scientific experiment, not as an engineering challenge. This is rapidly changing and regulators are now investigating how deployment might unfold in the real world.
- What have we learned over the past 70 years since the onset of nuclear power? First, we’ve learned about the potentially devastating risk of technology lock-in, which occurs when an industry becomes dependent on a specific product or system.
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