Abundant energy: Fusing atoms in a controlled manner releases approximately 4 million times more energy than chemical reactions such as the combustion of coal, oil, and gas, and 4 times the nuclear fission reaction (isomass). Fusion has the potential to provide the baseload energy needed to power cities and industry.
CO₂: Fusion does not release harmful substances such as carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Its main by-product is helium: an inert, non-toxic gas.
Millions of years: Iter’s fusion requires two elements: deuterium and tritium. Deuterium can be distilled from any form of water, but when fusion neutrons interact with lithium, tritium is produced during the fusion reaction. (Although terrestrial reserves for lithium would allow the operation of fusion power plants for more than 1,000 years, sea-based reserves of lithium used in fusion reactors in the Li-6 isotopic form remain in the hundreds of thousands of years. A key challenge is how to reliably breed and recover tritium in fusion devices.
No long-lived radioactive waste: Fusion reactors do not produce highly active, long-lived nuclear waste. The activation of the components in the fusion reactor is expected to be low enough to recycle or reuse the material within 100 years, depending on the material used in the “first wall” facing the plasma.
Limited proliferation risk: Fusion does not use fissile materials such as uranium or plutonium. (Radioactive tritium is neither a fissile material nor a fissile material.) There are no enriched materials, such as fusion reactors, that could be exploited to make nuclear weapons.
No risk of meltdown: A Fukushima-type nuclear accident is impossible with a tokamak fusion device. It is difficult enough to reach and maintain the exact conditions required for fusion. If a disturbance occurs, the plasma cools down within seconds and the reaction stops. The amount of fuel present in the container at one time is sufficient for only a few seconds and there is no risk of a chain reaction.
Cost: The power output of the types of fusion reactors envisioned for the future may be similar to that of fission reactors (i.e. 1-1.7 gigawatts). However, the average cost per kilowatt of electricity cannot yet be extrapolated, as this will require operational experience that will only be available after ITER has been operational for several years. As with many new technologies, when a technology is new, it starts out more expensive and gradually becomes cheaper as economies of scale reduce costs.
The planet’s ideal future energy mix is based on a variety of generational methods rather than heavy dependence on one source. As a new source of carbon-free baseload electricity that does not produce long-lived radioactive waste, fusion could positively impact the challenges of resource availability, carbon emissions reduction, fission waste disposal and safety issues. may make a contribution.
