{"id":113,"date":"2023-11-22T12:18:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T11:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/?p=111391"},"modified":"2023-11-22T12:18:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T11:18:59","slug":"fusion-industry-outlines-ambitious-plans-to-deliver-electricity-to-the-grid-by-2035","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hadamard.com\/c\/fusion-industry-outlines-ambitious-plans-to-deliver-electricity-to-the-grid-by-2035\/","title":{"rendered":"Fusion industry outlines ambitious plans to deliver electricity to the grid by 2035"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is the Fusion Industry Association (FIA)?<\/h3>\n

n<\/p>\n

The FIA is the independent business association for privately financed fusion-energy companies. We have 38 members, all of whom have different approaches to reaching commercial fusion energy.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

How do you become a member?<\/h3>\n

n<\/p>\n

You need to have raised private capital and demonstrate a plan for building a fusion power plant that will sell the power it generates. All of the FIA companies think that they can get there within the coming decades and have investors who believe it is\u202fpossible.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

Why fusion?<\/h3>\n

n<\/p>\n

Fusion energy is clean, safe, sustainable, always on and always available with a fuel source that is virtually unlimited. By unlimited I mean that we have hundreds of millions or even billions of years of fuel here on Earth. Fusion creates no carbon emissions, no greenhouse-gas emissions and has no long-lived nuclear waste. There\u2019s also no threat of having a nuclear meltdown so there is no safety impact to the public. It\u2019s basically everything you could want from an energy source.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

So why don\u2019t we have it already?<\/h3>\n

n<\/p>\n

It is scientifically very hard to do. We\u2019re still at the point where we need to do a lot of engineering and still some science to get there. The challenge is not just to create fusion, but to create fusion with net energy \u2013 to get more energy out of the fusion reaction than you put in. But we believe we\u2019re on the way to doing this and we believe the signposts are there that show we\u2019re not in the realm of science fiction. In a decade or so we can have commercial fusion energy, putting clean, safe, sustainable fusion energy into the grid.<\/p>\n

nn<\/p>\n

What other applications are there?<\/h3>\n

n<\/p>\n

One is to use fusion to generate medical isotopes, which can be very helpful for certain forms of cancer treatment or in medical imaging. These are things that are happening right now. Another is fusion propulsion for space applications, which could mean getting from low-Earth orbit to Mars in a matter of weeks or a month instead of years. But the real \u201ckiller app\u201d is energy production. We need alternative approaches and fusion is the ultimate energy source. What we need to meet the climate challenge is to have always on, always available, zero-carbon energy.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

What are some of the ways to generate fusion?\u00a0 <\/span><\/h3>\n

n<\/p>\n

On one end is laser inertial fusion energy. This involves using a laser or other driver to put a lot of energy onto a very small target, creating an extreme pressure situation where fusion happens. At the other end of plasma physics is magnetically confined fusion, using powerful magnets to contain the plasma in a steady state, which also takes a lot of energy.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

And laser fusion has seen some recent success?<\/h3>\n

n<\/p>\n

Yes, last year physicists and engineers at the laser-based National Ignition Facility in California reported an energy gain in one of their fusion shots. We really see this as a Wright brothers moment. The Wright brothers understood that planes would fly and it took a whole new area of science \u2013 aeronautical engineering \u2013 to be able to do this. Likewise, we think we\u2019re there with fusion and the plane has flown. We\u2019re not selling it yet, but we\u2019re on our way.<\/p>\n

n<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/a>