posted by admin on Oct 9
Oxfordshire in the UK could see the first commercial use of nuclear fusion to create energy.
Unlike all existing nuclear energy plants that create energy splitting particles (nuclear fission), this hoped for technology would be squashing particles together under immense pressure and temperature until they fuse together and release all their energy (nuclear fusion).
Why Fusion?
For decades science and technology experts have been working with the idea of copying the suns natural processes and to create and abundant supply of carbon-free electricity (even more important in today’s society).
Needless to say the process needs extreme heat - just like the sun itself - for this to occur and it could also be as dangerous as a normal nuclear power plant if if goes into ‘meltdown’. However, all the experts believe that this couldn’t happen - but then they go on to say that ‘if it did…..’ it would only be low-level radiation that was leaked out across the countryside! Well, they would be fools to tell us otherwise.
In addition, this method also has a much shorter life-span than contemporary reactors of only 12 years, so would need to be replaced every decade.
Is it better than existing energy-creation methods?
Previous attempts to perform nuclear fusion have actually used more energy than they managed to create, but the physicists are hopeful that they can change that in the future.
An international group headed by British scientists have put all their faith in HiPER. They believe that this ‘reactor’ will be built in the next few years and place Britain at the cutting edge of nuclear fusion research. Nuclear fission we know creates a huge amount of radioactive waste - and can be very dangerous in the event of an ‘accident’. Not so here, apparently.
Professor Mike Dunne is leading the team and hopes to create a ‘miniature sun’ here on earth - offering a solution to the worlds energy needs in the long term. He advises that this will be a source of carbon-free power which uses sea-water as its fuel - AND generates minimal radioactive waste.
Sounds perfect, doesn’t it?
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