A Fusion Breakthrough?

Terence KealeyThe bombs that dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were fission bombs. When isotopes of uranium or plutonium break into smaller particles, energy is released, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs channeled that energy into an explosion. In a civil nuclear power generator, by contrast, the release of fission energy is controlled, and used to power the electrical grid.The energy from the sun comes from fusion. Under the weight of the sun ’s gravity, and channeled by vast heat, isotopes of hydrogen fuse with each other to create a new, heavier, element called helium. Helium, indeed, was first detected in the sun, which is how it got its name:helios is the Greek word for sun.We humans have been harnessing the power of nuclear fusion since 1952, when the United States exploded Ivy Mike on an atoll in the Marshall Islands. Technically, Ivy Mike was a thermonuclear device, but because they fuse isotopes of hydrogen into helium, such devices are generally called hydrogen bombs.Unfortunately, however, the civil production of electricity from fusion has yet to be achieved, which is indeed unfortunate because fusion produces neither CO2 nor radioactivity. A civil fusion power generator would produce baseload energy that was clean, that would avoid global warming, and that —in contrast to many renewables—would not vary output depending on the sun and wind.But creating a civil fusion power generator would require such high temperatures and compressive forces that, to dat...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs