What are the disadvantages of fusion energy?
Fusion energy provides many environmental benefits will make much more effective and other sources when we are able to achieve commercial fusion energy. Unfortunately, it is also plagued by some key limitations that prevent fusion from becoming a commercial success. Firstly, fusion energy is extremely costly with the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER) forecast to cost around 20 billion dollars , the US pumping 450 million dollars a year into the 3.5-billion-dollar National Ignition Facility(NIF) facility, the costs of fusion aren’t slowing down.
Fusion energy research has proved problematic and there is the risk that commercialised fusion energy may just be impossible. Fusion researchers have been conducting experiments since the 1970, yet they have been unable to create a fusion power plant cable of producing a higher net energy than the amount required to start the reaction for over 40 years. This leads to another dilemma which is the current timeline of fusion energy. The ITER, is currently aiming to demonstrate 500MW of fusion energy for 400 second currently states that the first plasma will not be created until 2025. The deuterium-tritium operation will not begin until 2035. This means that commercially viable magnetic confinement fusion will not be commercially viable until at least 2050. This is also assuming the ITER results go according to plan.
This extreme timeline
Cold fusion is only produced three out of ten times under the best conditions, but this is enough to justify continued research. The first transitors were only successful one out of a hundred times until the mechanisms were completely understood. The science of the reaction taking place in cold fusion is still not clear. When pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together better, the success rate will increase, and yields will go up.
Fusion energy seems to be the most promising energy source of the not-too-distant future. It is safe, it uses an energy supply that is so abundant that it will never run out, it gives off harmless waste, and it produces energy comparable to the Earth's sun! But are there any problems with this hopeful energy source?
Fusion centers will contribute to state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies in many different ways. The main contribution is the coordination of all agencies exchanging real time information, packaged up and sent out to the individuals on the street. That information can now be accessed by anyone working a particular case. In turn this information can help to resolve a potential crime before it happens or help to apprehend a potential suspect.
Presently, nuclear fusion and nuclear fission are being studied, and even used in some countries as a power generator. The enormous energy produced by nuclear fission and fusion could light up a big city for a hundred years or more and we do not have to worry about it polluting our environment because nuclear energy is a green energy. Moreover, in a long term, the cost to generate power using nuclear is far less than the cost of generating power using fossil fuel.
Although there are challenges I believe fusion centers are a step in the right direction and they have many successes. It is a continual improvement process but important to make it
1. Christian, Eric. (2012, May 10). Nucleosynthesis. Retrieved from http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/nucleo.html 2. May, Sandra. (2015, Sept 16)
How can activities of fusion centers be modified to address the concerns of their critics?
Fusion fuel is plentiful with hundreds of thousands of years worth just sitting in the ocean and in the atmosphere, albeit you would still be required to refine it to its basic elements. Nevertheless, fusion technology is barely able to break even. Not to mention the fact that ignition, or the point at which a fusion reaction is self-sustaining, still eludes scientists. If I were to continue research about nuclear fusion, I would look into the specifics of atomic fusion and how fusion technology has gotten more efficient over the years. Despite my previous ideas and beliefs about nuclear fusion, I have learned that alone, fusion would be an impracticality. You would still need other sources of energy to supply the bulk of people who would not need the same capacity of electricity a city needs. Accepting this allowed me to see why some people oppose nuclear fusion after learning about what it is. Not every person would reap the rewards of the technology, and for countless people, it would take upwards of a few decades to possibly reach them. Although this makes sense to me, I still do believe that fusion research is a must and would eventually benefit everyone. We still need to innovate new energy sources, and although fusion should be one of them and disregarding it would be a disastrous idea, we should also work on achieving better and more efficient solar and wind energy for the betterment of the
Throughout history, the source of energy that powers the world has advanced alongside technology. The power on which civilization thrives has to be in accordance to the demand at which it is required. As technology evolves, objects from which energy can be extracted can expanded exponentially. In the status quo, the United States is trying to limit the greenhouse gas emissions instead of just switching power sources which is the wrong direction they should be going in. [Thesis] Instead of wasting their time and money investing in burning coal as their main source of power, countries and their governments need to assist in the transition to a more cost effective and efficient form of energy in the form of nuclear energy.
Fossil fuels make up about 85% of the United States fuel (The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuels) and 80% of the entire world’s fuel (City of Whitehorse). At the rate in which humans are growing as a population, the rate at which we use fossil fuels is increasing in steady numbers. Fossil fuels are an unsustainable, and therefore they are unreliable. If the population will continue to grow, they must find a new energy source before the ones they use today become depleted. Since 1945 (Outline History of Nuclear Energy), humans have been closely focusing on the development of harnessing nuclear power. Nuclear power that exists today is known as nuclear fission, which involves the science of harnessing the energy when an atom is split. Presently, researchers are looking into a new form of nuclear power that is called nuclear fusion. This type of nuclear power involves forcing atoms to combine and capturing the energy released. Both forms of nuclear power are by far more sustainable than fossil fuels and produce less waste which is harmful to humans and the
Karl Grandin, Peter Jagers, and Sven Kullander wrote an article called Nuclear Energy that explains what some of the key concerns of using nuclear energy are. They say that everyone 's worried about six key issues while using nuclear energy. These key issues are safety, nuclear waste, non-proliferation, fuel availability, life cycle analysis, and economic competitiveness. In this article they state “Nuclear energy can play a role in carbon free production of electrical energy, thus making it interesting for tomorrow’s energy mix. However, several issues have to be addressed. In fission technology, the design of so called fourth generation reactors show great promise, in particular in addressing materials efficiency and safety issues”
As the world becomes more aware of the growing need for a more abundant energy supply, one energy source has been swept under the carpet and virtually ignored. This source is cold fusion. Cold fusion is:
Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction where the atomic nuclei of low atomic number have been fused together to create a heavier nucleus with the release of energy. Fusion powers the sun which is already being conducted in laboratories throughout the world by scientists. Byproducts of the fusion process are a fast neutron and helium. These carry the heat to turn it into steam. Throughout the country there are 47 out of 50 states that support the fusion industry. For nuclear fusion to occur, there must be temperatures over a million degrees. On the sun and stars, nuclear fusion occurs. Hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium nuclei in the sun. Only one percent of mass from an atom is converted into energy. It produces less radioactive weight
Scientists have been trying for many years to build nuclear reactors that would allow a sustained fusion reaction to occur. There are several factors that influence a fusion reaction. Since very high kinetic energies are needed for nuclei to fuse, the plasma in which fusion occurs is extremely hot. Temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees celsius are required for the easiest fusion reaction to take place. Plasmas are fluids, and therefore they have no permanent shape and will quickly disperse if not confined. A 100 million degree plasma will vaporise any container in which it is placed, so magnetic fields are used to contain the plasma.
abandoned. All three topics are dealt with in fusion, that is why it is such a