Why Don't We Have Fusion Power?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
1,066 words · ~5 min read
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with all the talk about increasing Global energy consumption and finding a
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source of power that won't run out like fossil fuels will one day we've been
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looking for something both sustainable and Powerful for quite a long time solar
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and wind are much discussed options to solve this problem but simply put
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they're just not efficient enough today to address most of our energy needs and
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traditional nuclear power which relies on uranium fuel that may be depleted one
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day as well ALS o presents the additional problems of radioactive waste
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and possible meltdowns enter fusion
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power we've been kicking this idea around for so long that it seems like
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Fusion research is becoming another quest for the Fountain of Youth but why
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is that why don't we have it yet and what is so special about it well what's
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special is that Fusion can produce lots
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of energy from relatively small amounts of fuel by literally smashing atoms
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together usually these are hydrogen atoms that are well they're well they're
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fused together to make helium the same stuff you find in balloons well hold on
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a second line as I took grade 11 chemistry look at the mass of a helium
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atom it's lower than the two hydrogen isotopes that smash together to produce
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it well it turns out that this missing
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Mass was converted to energy during the fusion process because of differences in
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how strongly the protons and neutrons that make up hydrogen and helium stick
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to each other and a very small amount of
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mass is equal to a huge amount of energy
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you know that famous equation that people spout out whenever they want to
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look really smart what that means is that Fusion is extremely powerful even
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more than conventional nuclear fishing which splits atoms instead of smashing
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them together and because the only byproduct is helium we'd be rid of the
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carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels and you wouldn't even have to
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worry about radiation presenting an environmental hazard well cool then so
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why don't we just get a bunch of hydrogen and start like smashing atoms
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the special isotope of hydrogen that we need for Fusion called dyum is abundant
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in the oceans and could meet our energy needs for millions of years so it's not
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like we don't have enough fuel well there are other problems aside from the
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obligatory funding issues and political wrangling that come with any major
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scientific Endeavor one one major issue is that you need lots of energy to start
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a fusion reaction in the first place our own sun is a natural Fusion reactor in
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fact hydrogen Fusion has kept it burning for billions of years and will keep it
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burning for billions more but the sun can only do this naturally because it's
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so large the intense gravity at its core
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creates temperatures of millions of degrees that both smart guy it's hot
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enough to make the atoms fuse don't worry about it but here on Earth Earth
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creating those kinds of conditions is much more difficult right now there are
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experimental Fusion reactors that do work but because we have to heat dyum to
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such high temperatures they require more power to be put into them than they
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actually generate like trying to charge a solar flashlight with another
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flashlight the other big issue is how to keep a fusion reaction going once you
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started it you need to create enough excess energy with your initial reaction
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to cause other atoms to fuse not to mention that you then need a way to
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contain that reaction not only to keep it dense enough to keep temperatures up
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but also because you don't want a hydrogen plasma heated to millions of
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degrees hitting the walls of the reactor for what I think should be fairly
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obvious reasons a very strong magnetic
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field is one possible solution to the containment problem which is being used
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in one of the newest experimental Fusion reactors at in Germany German
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engineering am I right whose next goal is to keep a reaction going for a mere
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30 minutes to see if sustainable Fusion
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is something that's even feasible down the line so we're still a ways away from
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seemingly Limitless clean energy but we are starting to see the possibility that
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Fusion could be the solution to a future energy crisis that is assuming of course
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that Doc O doesn't come along and steal it for his evil layer I can't come up
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