UK Moves Step Closer to First Nuclear Fusion Power plant

Summary

• Planning to build a prototype nuclear fusion power plant by 2040, the UK has started hunt for an appropriate site for the project.
• Fusion is different from fission reactors as it does not produce any harmful radiation or radioactive waste material.
• For over five decades, scientists around the world are working tirelessly to develop the limitless and clean energy reactor; however, they still seem to be lagging a few decades behind.
• UK holds the world record for fusion power through its tokamak JET, which produced 16MW power in 1997.

The UK government has started the hunt for a 100-hectare site for its upcoming nuclear fusion-based power plant. Called as Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), it is expected to cost around £2 billion. Production is anticipated to start by 2040.

Last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed an additional investment of £200 million in the project. The U.K. Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is overseeing the ambitious project and expects the construction to start around 2030.

Interesting Read: Is NASA’s Lattice Confinement the practical answer to the Nuclear Fusion Paradigm?

Communities across the UK have been asked to bid to host the project and submit their nomination by the end of March 2021. The agency would select the appropriate location for the prototype plant after careful analysis of the nomination. A decision on the site is expected by the end of 2022.

Science behind Fusion 

Fusion reaction is the process behind the immense energy of the sun and other stars. A huge amount of energy is released when two hydrogen atoms combine to create a helium molecule.  

Laboratory tests have indicated that hydrogen isotopes- deuterium (D) and tritium (T) fusion reaction produces the highest energy at a comparatively lower temperature. A fusion reaction requires a very high-temperature range of 150,000,000⁰C. Hence, the main constraint to the process is the equipment that would contain the reaction at this temperature.

At extremely high temperature, the gaseous element transforms into plasma, also called the fourth state of matter, and electrons get detached from the atom’s nucleus. In this plasma state, the atoms come closer, and the electrons align themselves and form a new element and in the due process a vast amount of energy is released.

Factors Keeping Fusion Power Plants Far-Fetched

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How far the world has come in Fusion Energy

The Soviet researchers were the first to develop the tokamak, an experimental machine designed to harness the energy from the fusion reactions, in the 1960s. Since then, the tokamak has been widely accepted as the most promising configuration for fusion energy.

Tokamak, originating from an acronym (toroidal chamber with magnetic coils), is a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber with walls designed to absorb the heat produced from the fusion. Inside the tokamak, the hydrogen plasma reacts and produces helium and energy. Magnetic coils are used to control the plasma matter to reach up to the walls.

The UK has already built the world’s largest fusion reactor known as the Joint European Torus or JET. In 1997, the JET set the world record of producing 16MW of fusion power by consuming the energy equivalent of 24MW.

The ITER project in France is currently the largest fusion-based power plant under construction. The project is coming up with the help of the international community and the participating members are: India, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, the European Union, and the United States.

The ITER project is scheduled to go online in 2025 with an estimated cost of £18 billion.

Why the World needs the Fusion Energy

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• Fusion energy does not produce any harmful effluents or radiations.
• The raw material hydrogen is available in abundance, and no mining activity is required.
• Better output/input ratio. Coal and other sources have a lesser ratio as the efficiency is lesser.
• A sustainable source of energy.