Fusion Energy

Fusion Confusion?

Lately, it seems you can't swing a dead catalyst without hitting something called FUSION. Cars, candy bars, soft drinks, even razor blades are named after it. Probably to give you the impression that what's inside is high energy. (I still haven't figured out what fusion has to do with shaving).

My girlfriend used the word recently during a discussion we were having in front of the local theatre. She suggested that we see a romantic comedy. I countered with a film about a family of crazed killers. She said something about boundaries and followed it with, "Hey, it's not fusion". The next thing I know, I'm sitting in a center loge seat watching a movie I think was entitled "Tender Magnolias".

I decided that before our next date, I would learn more about fusion and exactly how it relates to movie selection.

What is fusion? Fusion is the same process by which the sun creates energy, by combining the nuclei of light elements (deuterium and tritium), to form a heavier element (helium). The process of fusing these elements results in the release of large amounts of energy which can be captured and used to generate heat and eventually electricity.

“By the time our young children reach middle age, fusion may begin to deliver energy independence and energy abundance to all nations rich and poor”. - U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham

Fusion fuel is essentially sea water. Each gallon of water, if burned in a fusion reactor, would produce as much energy as 300 gallons of gasoline. In addition to using abundant water as it's fuel, fusion is a clean energy source. Because fusion does not "burn" fuel as normal electric generation plants, there is no pollution. Fusion is much safer than nuclear fission, which splits heavy elements like uranium into smaller atoms. Although fusion does produce a small amount of radioactivity, the radioactive byproducts are short lived, and decay into harmless substances in a few months. Moreover, a fusion reactor has very little fuel in the reactor at any one time. There is no way for a fusion generation plant to go supercritical or "meltdown" like a fission plant.

To achieve nuclear fusion, a plasma must be heated to extremely high temperatures ­ at least one hundred million (100,000,000) degrees Celsius. This plasma can't be confined by the walls of any container. Not because the walls would be melted, but that they are so much colder, the walls cool the plasma and prevent fusion. The trick is to contain the hot plasma without actually touching it. The most common way to confine the hot plasma is to use strong magnetic fields.

If the obstacles to this technology can be overcome, fusion energy offers the prospect of a long-term, safe, environmentally friendly energy option.

Was my girlfriend impressed with my new found fever for fusion? Not really. But as her eyes glazed over from the mere mention of deuterium, I had no trouble slipping her into a sci-fi action flick. -ffa