Energy-related emissions are poised for a prolonged period of decline for the first time since the Industrial Revolution. These critical pillars of economic growth account for around a third of the country’s total carbon emissions. As global concern about climate change intensifies, China is undertaking significant measures to move its industrial sectors, including chemicals, steel and cement, towards sustainable development. Norway’s government has reached a $1.6 billion deal with seven private investors to take over much of the country’s gas export network. Drought and floods are causing problems for hydropower production across Latin America.
Invest in nuclear fusion now for future generations
Currently, however, the main hurdle is making fusion produce more energy than it consumes. Nuclear fusion gets a lot of public attention due to its fantastic potential. Advanced nuclear technologies can help address some of the concerns around safety and cost. In New York City, heat pumps are becoming common in new developments, and a new programme will start introducing them into the city’s public housing this winter, which has long-standing problems with broken furnaces and inadequate heat. The technology still needs to overcome the common misconception that heat pumps can’t hack it anywhere that experiences true winter. Despite doing all the work of central heating and cooling, heat pumps use far less energy than an oil burner or HVAC systems.
- Nuclear fusion has been described as harnessing the same reaction that powers the sun and stars on Earth.
- The global race for commercial fusion is on while the fusion-powered future is just beginning.
- A nuclear fusion reactor in South Korea has set a new record, superheating a plasma loop to 100 million degrees Celsius for 48 seconds.
By harnessing the energy in the outside air, which is present even on cold days, and moving it inside in the form of heat, heat pumps can efficiently warm a home. Nuclear fusion, however, was not a major part of the conversation — but as the drought and heat waves in Europe, the flooding in Pakistan and Nigeria and every other climate catastrophe has recently shown, we need large-scale changes. Nuclear fusion reactors around the world are being built to find the best way to control and capture the energy of such reactions. Digital power system transformation ‘essential’ – and more top energy stories
South Korean nuclear fusion reactor sets new record
On average, the waste from a reactor supplying a person’s electricity needs for a year would be about the size of a brick. The International Atomic Energy Agency says that over 80 SMR designs are in development worldwide, targeting electricity, heating, water desalination and industrial steam. Unlike traditional nuclear power (fission), which splits atoms, fusion joins smaller atoms to make heavier ones.
The renaissance of the stellarator – what it means for fusion energy
The framework is intended to be a coordination tool for leaders across the nuclear ecosystem to align on actions and strategies to accelerate advanced nuclear and SMR deployment across nine priority areas. Some claim they can reduce the time it takes for waste to decay from half a million years to less than 500 years. Only 5 grams of this is high-level waste – about the same weight as a sheet of paper.
Challenges for nuclear fusion researchers
One showed for the first time that it is feasible to build a low power (~100MWe) tokamak with a high power gain. On Earth we need to create similar conditions and hold a hot electrically-charged plasma at high enough pressure for long enough for fusion reactions to occur. Controlled fusion is the ideal long-term energy source, complimentary to renewables. Fusion – with no CO2 emissions, no risk of meltdown and no long-lived radioactive waste – is the obvious solution and has been for decades, but it is so hard to achieve. But what’s next for this vital technology in the age of power-hungry AI systems?
Is the world ready for the transformational power of fusion?
In 2018 energy intensity improved by 1.2%, the slowest rate since 2010. Commonwealth Fusion Systems will turn on a demonstration power plant, called SPARC, in 2027. More than 40 fusion fusion markets review startups are speeding towards this goal.
Nuclear fusion has been described as harnessing the same reaction that powers the sun and stars on Earth. OpenStar says its design – which turns the ‘tokamak’ design used by many other fusion projects “inside out” – could be faster to scale and commercialize than other. Global goals, agreed at COP28, of tripling renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030 are crucial for limiting global temperature rises to below 1.5C. Annual investment in the global energy sector must grow by more than 2.5 times to stick to a 1.5C pathway, IRENA says.
Innovative start-ups are developing ways to shrink the volume and toxicity of nuclear waste. But even with its small footprint, waste remains a key concern for the public, as it can take thousands of years to decay. In addition, fast neutron reactors can utilize spent fuel from existing power plants and provide a sustainable solution to the issue of waste. They use fission technology, so they’re not as frontier as fusion, but they’re closer to becoming a reality. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are another promising area of advanced nuclear energy. According to the US Department of Energy, fusion reactions are hard to sustain due to the extreme heat and pressure needed to fuse atoms.
- Right up against the arctic circle in Norway, nearly two thirds of homes rely on heat pumps to stay warm, and just over 40% have them in Sweden and Finland.
- Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun and stars, merges two atomic nuclei into a larger one.
- The global smartphone market is set to rebound 3% in 2024, according to a new report from Counterpoint Research.
- We will deliver net energy conditions well before the end of the decade and commercial net energy by the early 2030s.
- This electricity will hit Virginia’s power grid nanoseconds later, making nearby residents the first human beings to benefit from commercial fusion power generation.
Tech and Innovation
One problem was that the process, which usually involves distilling seawater multiple times until all the salt is removed, uses an incredible amount of energy. Access to fresh water is drying up around the world, focusing attention on desalination (desal) technology, which can make plentiful drinking water from the sea. Fusion energy is arguably the most exciting human discovery since fire.
Nuclear fusion and heat pumps: Here’s how to solve tomorrow’s winter heating woes
While nuclear fusion power offers the prospect of an almost inexhaustible energy source for future generations, it has also presented many so-far-insurmountable scientific and engineering challenges. In May 2023, Microsoft announced a deal with private US nuclear fusion company Helion to buy electricity made using fusion technology in 2028. A concerted effort towards fusion energy is the best way to solve the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure the supply of safe, clean energy long into the future.
As fusion power transforms the economics and geopolitics of energy, it will reshape industries and regions that need it most. Effective policies, private-sector action and public-private cooperation are needed to create a more inclusive, sustainable, affordable and secure global energy system. Moving to clean energy is key to combating climate change, yet in the past five years, the energy transition has stagnated. What’s the World Economic Forum doing about the transition to clean energy?
Pioneering nuclear fusion
The difficulties in designing current-carrying coils to produce the magnetic fields required for confining plasmas to create fusion energy have been critical since the beginning of research into magnetically-confined plasmas in the 1950s. The jump from fossil fuels to fusion energy will inevitably be more profound than the jump from burning wood to burning fossil fuels. From there, fusion will naturally expand to markets where consumers need constant power and lack affordable clean alternatives — or where leaders have made ambitious climate commitments.
It offers the prospect of an “almost inexhaustible source of energy”, according to the World Nuclear Association. There is a “significant gap” between political announcements around renewable energy and the actual plans and policies countries have in place, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Countries have different starting points for the green transition. Fusion fuel – different isotopes of hydrogen – must be heated to extreme temperatures of around 50 million degrees Celsius, kept stable under intense pressure, and dense enough and confined for long enough to allow the nuclei to fuse. At Davos in 2023, Kim Budil, the lab’s director, explained the experiment involved beaming 192 lasers on a tiny target and heating it to create a self-sustaining reaction. In December 2022, scientists at the lab managed to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumed – a net gain of 1.5 megajoules in less time than it takes light to travel one inch.
While advancements in AI, quantum computing, biotech, robotics and automation and other fields present numerous opportunities, new technologies are also hiking energy demand. A competitive race and more private investment would be good for the progress of fusion. We have built and demonstrated a tokamak with all its magnets made from HTS and we are now designing the device to get to fusion temperatures. Can we get sufficiently beyond breakeven to produce electricity for the first time?
The technology could help people redefine their lives, according to NHS England diabetes clinical director Dr Clare Hambling. The total number of people living with diabetes globally is projected to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045, International Diabetes Federation data shows. A glucose sensor under the skin calculates how much insulin is delivered via a pump, with trials showing the technology improved quality of life and reduced long-term health complication risks. Type 1 Diabetes patients in England are to be offered a new technology described as an artificial pancreas. KSTAR is the prototype of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) based in France. However, there are still many challenges to overcome before the technology is commercially viable.