by The United States will work with other governments to accelerate efforts to make nuclear fusion a new source of carbon-free energy, US Climate Envoy John Kerry said on Tuesday, the latest announcement by many States United last week focused on fighting climate change.
Nuclear fusion fuses two hydrogen atoms together to produce a helium atom and lots of energy – which could be used to power cars, heat and cool homes and other things that are often powered by fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. This makes fusion a major potential solution to climate change, which is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Still, fusion is a long way off, and other clean technologies such as wind, solar and others are currently in use and could be scaled up.
“We’re getting closer to a fusion-powered reality. And at the same time, yes, there are significant scientific and engineering challenges,” said Kerry, in Dubai for UN climate talks. “Careful consideration and thoughtful policy will be key to directing this.”
Researchers have been trying for years to tap into the reaction that powers the sun and other stars – a goal that has been elusive because it requires high temperatures and pressures so that it easily dissipates.
Kerry wants to speed that up in the hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times, a benchmark set by the international community. He urged nations to come together to “use the power of basic physics and human intelligence in response to a crisis”. The strategy sets out five areas for international partnerships: research, the supply chain and the future market, regulation, workforce issues and public engagement. Kerry speaking at the Atlantic Council’s World Energy Forum.
The United States and the United Kingdom announced a partnership in November to accelerate the development of global fusion energy, and the United States announced its own vision last year for research needed over the past decade. In the south of France, 35 nations are collaborating on an experimental fusion energy machine, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, to prove the possibility of fusion as a large-scale, carbon-free energy source. That project was marred by delays and cost overruns. On Friday, Japan and Europe said they were launching the world’s largest fusion reactor.
Both China and Russia are partners in ITER, and China in particular is moving aggressively to promote fusion research and development, said Andrew Holland, chief executive officer of the Fusion Industry Association.
“We’re trying to build a global posse to get there before the Chinese so the Chinese don’t influence another new technology,” he said.
Before leaving for Dubai, Kerry put on a hat and they went on tour Commonwealth Fusion Systems in Devens, Massachusetts, a company racing to design, build and deploy fusion power plants.
Until now, all nuclear power has come from nuclear fission reactors in which atoms are split — a process that produces both energy and radioactive waste. The global nuclear industry launched an initiative at COP28 for nations to commit to tripling this type of nuclear energy by 2050. More than 20 have already signed up, including the United States and this year’s host of the talks, the United Arab Emirates Arabs.
Fusion does not produce the radioactive waste of nuclear fission. In a global race to make it a practical and possibly limitless source of power, more than $6 billion has been invested so far, according to the Fusion Industry Association. There are now more than 40 fusion companies worldwide with more than 80% of the investment in the United States. Thirteen of the companies have emerged in the past year and a half.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised the most, more than $2 billion, according to the association.
Like the 35 nation effort, the Commonwealth is trying to create fusion inside what is called a tokamak. The doughnut molding machine uses powerful magnets to confine and insulate plasma so that it is hot enough for the fusion reaction to occur and stays hot longer.
A year ago, in a major breakthrough using a different technology at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, scientists were for the first time able to engineer a reaction that produces more power than was used to ignite it, known as net energy gain. Their process uses a laser.
Physicists around the world regard doughnut molding machines as the most promising magnetic fusion device.
Tokamaks are getting bigger in size for better performance. Commonwealth Fusion was founded in 2018 by researchers and students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Plasma Fusion and Science Center. Using advances in superconducting magnet technology combined with science from their own compact tokamak, the MIT group attempted a high-temperature tolerant magnet that could achieve strong magnetic fields, using little electricity.
They hope to build a smaller and cheaper unit more quickly, to make fusion commercially viable for the first time, said Professor Dennis Whyte, co-founder of the Commonwealth who heads the Plasma Science and Fusion Centre.
“If fusion becomes economically competitive, we’ve solved energy for humanity forever and ever. It’s like, of course, you go after that,” he said in an interview.
The company and the university collaborate closely with each other. In 2021, they turned on their superconducting electromagnet and demonstrated a record-breaking magnetic field, making it the strongest fusion magnet of its kind. Whyte said he knew the fusion had changed him forever.
But despite the hype, reliable and cheap nuclear fusion energy remains a pipe dream, said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. Fusion is much less likely than alternatives to be commercialized in a time frame that would allow it to help prevent the worst effects of climate change, he said. Lyman said the huge price tag could also rob promising alternatives, such as renewable energy, of resources they need to thrive,
But 19 fusion companies expect to deliver power to the grid before 2035, the Fusion Industry Association said in July.
The Commonwealth is designing its first power plant, called “ARC,” to connect to the grid in the early 2030s.
ARC plans to produce about 460 megawatts of electricity. About 60 of those would be used to run the plant, for a net output of about 400 megawatts, enough to power thousands of homes. It is projected to cost about $1 billion to $2 billion, according to the company, and fit into a space the size of a basketball court.
Before that, the Commonwealth says it will build and test a prototype tokamak it calls SPARC, hoping to launch it in late 2025 or early 2026.
CEO Bob Mumgaard said he thinks clean energy from fusion can decarbonise heavy industries that are big emitters of greenhouse gases.
“That’s our game going forward, it’s the really hard stuff, the stuff that leaves you to zero,” he said in an interview.
On the walls at Commonwealth runs a hip-level pattern of white dots, one for each of the 10,000 fusion power plants they think the world will need by 2050. Mumgaard said it’s a daily reminder that the world a lot of energy, most of it. from fossil fuels, and that must change.
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