We are truly blessed to experience the beauty of nature 🌱. The amazing sunrise and sunset 🌄. The beautiful colors of the flowers 🌹. The relaxing smell of nature. The calming summer days 🏖️ and the cozy winter nights ❄️. We are truly lucky to live on planet Earth 🌎.
It’s time we start appreciating and taking care of our world. Imagine the polar opposite of what we can appreciate in nature today. A dry, arid, and desolate land. Smoky skies, murky water, and rotted plants 🥀.
Definitely, not as fun and exciting.
It’s crucial we begin finding ways to protect our environment. Otherwise, the world's wonders won’t be there for us to appreciate.
Fossil Fuels are destroying Mother Nature 👎
Fossil fuels are the main factor of modern-day pollution. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 89% of CO2 emissions came from fossil fuels in 2018.
These CO2 emissions trap heat in our atmosphere resulting in global warming. The average global temperature has already increased by 1°C. The Paris Agreement in 2015, has the goal to limit global warming well below 2°C preferably at 1.5°C. Yet according to a 2022 report published by IPCC, global warming levels are already on track to reach 1.5°C within the next two decades by around 2040! The need for change is crucial ⚠️.
Fossil fuels heavily contribute to water pollution as well. Oil spills 🛢️, coal mining operations, and the emission of gases contaminate our water sources. It jeopardizes the natural habitats of marine life as well. Think about the dolphins 🐬! An example of this can be the Callao oil spill. Nearly 12,000 barrels of crude oil were spilled onto an estimated 39 square miles of nature reserves, sea, and beaches damaging the habitats of marine life and the jobs of local fishermen 🎣.
Fossil fuel pollution can also contribute to negative health effects. Young kids and infants are at the most risk. Since they’re developing humans, they have a higher vulnerability to health effects as a result of this type of pollution. Asthma, respiratory disorders, heart disease, and cancer are just some of the health effects caused by this type of pollution.
Society shouldn’t depend on fossil fuels either. Our dependence on this limited resource can leave us exposed to problems in the future. The demand for energy rises yet the supply of fossil fuels is limited. Eventually, we’ll run out and things won’t be looking so good for us.
So, not so great huh 🤷?
Inciting Change!
Clearly, this problem cannot go unaddressed. Society as a whole has to put in the effort to change this global issue. Some solutions have already been introduced such as wind power, hydropower, and solar power. There have been some more creative innovations such as using ammonia as renewable energy, using tidal energy, and biofuels.
Another solution is using Nuclear Fusion as a means to power our modern-day world⚡.
All about Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion is when the two atomic nuclei of hydrogen atoms ⚛️ (deuterium + tritium) literally crash 💥 into each other to form a single heavier atomic nucleus (helium). The total mass of the new helium atom is less than the total mass of the deuterium and tritium that fused together. The leftover mass is converted to energy as described by the famous equation E=mc² (Energy = Mass * Speed of Light²). In order for the atomic nuclei to fuse together, tremendous amounts of energy are needed. Since the atomic nuclei are positively charged, they naturally repel each other. Tremendous amounts of heat and pressure will get the atomic nuclei to move at very high speeds in order to overcome this repulsion.
Throughout the infinite universe 🌌, fusion occurs in the core of every single star. Including our sun. Nuclear fusion is the very reason that stars emit light. It’s why we have daytime on Earth.
Each star provides the huge amounts of energy needed for fusion through their scorching heat ♨️ and powerful gravitational pull 💪.
A Mini Star on Earth🌟
Stars produce TREMENDOUS amounts of energy. Our sun lets out around 35,000x more than the amount of energy we use here on Earth! Just imagine if we could somehow replicate the process of nuclear fusion here on earth…
It’s entirely possible 😱.
Fusion scientists 🧑🔬 have been working day in and day out to develop such technology. They have embarked on a long journey with the end goal to replicate this process here on earth through fusion reactors.
Fusion reactors are devices used to produce electrical power from a fusion reaction. Some fusion reactors work differently than other fusion reactors. You should be keeping an eye out for emerging fusion technologies such as Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF) and Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF). They’re the most promising approaches to achieving nuclear fusion here on earth.
Magnetic Confinement Fusion involves the use of strong magnetic 🧲 fields in order to control the movement of the hydrogen plasma. The magnetic fields prevent the hydrogen plasma from hitting the reactor walls. If the hydrogen plasma came in contact with the reactor walls, the heat of the atomic nuclei would dissipate which would compromise the fusion process since the atomic nuclei need to be moving at very high speeds to overcome repulsion. Not just that, but the fusion reactor would just melt! The atomic nuclei have to be heated up to millions of degrees so they would just vaporize anything they touch. Using this technology is very complicated. The magnetic fields need to be VERY powerful 💪 and EXTREMELY precise 🎯. It’s one of the many engineering challenges that come when developing this technology.
Inertial Confinement Fusion involves using a tiny pellet of hydrogen typically about 1 to 10mm in diameter. Extremely high-powered lasers such as neodymium glass lasers rapidly heat up the pellet to scorching hot temperatures. As the laser hits the tiny pellet, it’s compressed to a very high density and heated up to extremely hot 🔥 temperatures at about 100,000,000°C! This would replicate the extreme conditions on stars that are needed for fusion to take place.
The two main types of fusion reactors being implemented are stellarators and tokamaks.
A stellarator is a machine that implements magnetic fields in order to confine the plasma in the shape of a torus (like a donut) 🍩. Stellarators use extremely strong electromagnets in order to generate magnetic fields. These electromagnets wrap around the torus.
Tokamaks, just like stellarators, implement magnetic fields to confine the plasma in the shape of a torus. Tokamaks use a strong central magnet called a solenoid. They also use magnets to surround the torus.
Stellarators have an advantage over Tokamaks as they don’t need as much power to confine the plasma, are more flexible in their design, and simplify the plasma confinement process.
Current Challenges and Limitations
Just like any developing technology, there are always challenges that need to be overcome and limitations that need to be addressed.
Fuel for fusion reactors is definitely plentiful. That is if you’re only referring to deuterium. You can easily come across deuterium in oceans 🌊. Roughly 1 in 5000 hydrogen atoms is deuterium. Tritium on the other hand definitely isn’t as plentiful. It only exists in very small amounts in the upper atmosphere. Tritium can be bred during a fusion reaction but isn’t easily collected.
It’s challenging to maintain a self-sustained fusion reaction (also known as fusion ignition). In order to achieve ignition, the fusion reactor has to produce enough energy to keep itself running. Otherwise, we would be losing power and there wouldn’t be ANY point in keeping it going. So far, fusion ignition hasn’t been kept for more than 17 minutes ⌛.
Engineering challenges are a major roadblock as well. Fusion reactors have to be extremely precise and accurate for them to work. The laser beams have to be pinpoint accurate. Magnetic fields have to be accurately adjusted to contain the plasma as well. Every single tiny 🤏 thing has to be designed right in order to achieve ignition.
Radioactivity ☢️ is also an issue. Every time a fusion experiment takes place, the neutrons released from the experiment tend to make some of the surrounding material radioactive. Also, as the hydrogen plasma interacts with the reactor, radioactive dust is released which needs to be removed from the reactor.
So many challenges and limitations. Yet there has been major progress.
Improvement
Although there are many challenges and limitations to this tremendous project there has also been major improvement as well. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) have managed to achieve sustained fusion! It was only briefly held but progress is still progress.
This past February, researchers working at Joint European Torus (JET) managed to break their own record for the amount of energy produced during a sustained fusion reaction. JET produced about 59 megajoules over 5 seconds of sustained fusion the previous record being 21.7 megajoules over 4 seconds of sustained fusion (1997). Although improvement has taken about a little over 20 years, there has been progress. Aside from being able to generate more energy, the technology of fusion reactors has been greatly improved.
A new up-and-coming project is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). It’s an international megaproject involving 35 countries working together to build a tokamak with the end goal of using it as renewable energy to power our lives. It’s very expensive though, it may end up costing over $22 billion! It’ll definitely be worth the price though! The assembly of ITER will be completed by approximately 2025. ITER is supposed to attempt full nuclear fusion by 2035. Yes, it is a LONG time but it’ll definitely be worth the wait. What’re 10 years when this technology can revolutionize our lives? What’re 10 years when nuclear fusion can save humanity from climate change?
Solving the Climate Crisis
Nuclear Fusion has the potential to change, transform, and reshape our lives. It might seem a little too hyped up and too good to be true, but it isn’t.
Remember how JET managed to achieve 5 seconds of fusion ignition? Well, the power produced within that 5 seconds of ignition was enough to power a house 🏠. Only 5 seconds. Just imagine the amount of energy ITER would be able to produce once ignition is achieved. All this energy produced by nuclear reactors would immediately go into powering our homes, cities, transportation, factories, data centers, computers, and literally anything electrical ⚡ you can think of! Just applying 1 gram of deuterium-tritium would produce 845 billion joules of energy! That’s enough to power about 7800 houses a single day! Nuclear fusion could hypothetically produce 4 million times more energy than coal, oil, or gas. Forget the need for fossil fuels, we have FUSION!
Nuclear fusion is a zero-emission energy source, meaning it has no carbon emissions that can potentially damage our environment.
Expect to have:
- Reduced Air Pollution 💨
- Reduced Water Pollution 💧
- Reduced Health Problems⚕️
The lives of plants, land animals, and marine animals wouldn’t be compromised due to our use of fossil fuels. We would be able to enjoy the beautiful sights of nature, the pink flowers 🌸, the clear skies, the beautiful clouds, and the diverse animals🦙.
Society’s dependence on fossil fuels would decline and we wouldn’t have to worry about the limited supply of fossil fuels. We wouldn’t have to worry about the adverse health effects we get from the pollution that occurs as a result of burning fossil fuels.
WE WOULD BE FREE! 🙌
Added Perks 🎁
Aside from just reducing pollution and improving our environment, nuclear fusion will provide us with new technologies, increase space exploration 🚀, revolutionize the production rate of goods, and improve transportation 🚌!
Once nuclear fusion begins to be implemented in our society, the production rate for goods will exponentially increase, leading to more opportunities for technological innovations. We would have a surplus of resources to supply the research and experiments needed to develop new and exciting technology 🥳.
Transportation would most certainly improve. Electric vehicles may become the standard for transportation. Charging stations would be powered through nuclear fusion instead of fossil fuels and there wouldn’t be a single concern with leaving a carbon footprint.
As nuclear fusion is introduced, the production rate of goods would increase and could potentially solve many problems. Countries with high poverty rates would benefit. The surplus of resources as a result of the high production rate could be supplied to those countries. In turn, this would lower poverty, decrease hunger, and supply many families with what they need to live the lives they deserve.
Medicine 💊 is also an important factor to consider. We could focus more on developing cures for all types of diseases. Nuclear medicine would heavily benefit as fusion reactors can produce the elements necessary for nuclear medicine. It would help immensely with diagnosing and treating certain types of diseases such as cancer!
In addition, nuclear fusion could allow us to make amazing discoveries in space 🪐. We would have the resources to make new and huge discoveries involving space technology and take a deeper dive into space (literally). If we develop fusion-powered rockets, we would be able to travel deeper into space at higher speeds 🏃🏻💨. This would reduce the radiation dosage that astronauts could potentially receive. Our dreams of traveling and colonizing Mars could become reality! 🤯
There are just so MANY possibilities within our reach… 🤘
Maybe nuclear fusion is only 30 years away… 🔜
I appreciate you taking the time to read this article! I hope this got you excited about fusion tech! Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback. Be sure to follow me for more interesting reads. Feel free to connect with me via Instagram. You can check out my personal newsletter here → Substack. Rock on ⚡.
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