You may want to take a moment and note today’s date. This just
might be the day you’ll recount to your grandchildren when they complain about
the energy bill in their first studio space-apartment. That still leaks somehow.
Anyways, yes, what I just said is an actual possibility given
what’s being put on the table: a virtually unlimited, zero-emission energy
source. Making it even more of an actual possibility is from whom that promise
is coming from: Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, better known
as the Skunk Works. Past projects include: the
P-80 Shooting Star , the first
fighter jet the USAF deployed over the skies of Korea; the
U-2 spyplane, famous from its
eponymous “incident”; and of course, the rockstar: the
SR-71 Blackbird. Not a pedigree
to scoff at to say the least. With the Skunk Works’ history of doing what can’t
be done, and quickly to boot, this makes for extremely exciting news.
Maybe the first thing
that came to mind when I said, “virtually unlimited, zero-emission energy
source” was wind power, maybe tidal, or perhaps solar, but the answer is
actually nuclear. Nuclear fusion, that is. Unlike nuclear fission, where one
atom splits into two and releases energy as a result, nuclear fusion, when two
atoms fuse into one, is not commercially employed in any nuclear power plants.
That’s because the energy from fission reactions is relatively simple to
harvest compared to fusion.
So, in fission reactors (pictured above) the source of heat for
steam turbines comes from the fission of radioactive elements such as uranium
and plutonium, where the rate of fission can be manipulated through control
rods which absorb neutrons that would have split more uranium atoms. Fusion
reactors, on the other hand, involve recreating conditions akin to the core of
our sun, which is to say, a lot of
heat and a lot of pressure. If we
were to peer into the sun’s core, we’d see superheated gas is separate into its
ions and electrons. Subsequently, when the ions get hot enough, they can
overcome their mutual repulsion and collide, fusing together. According to
Lockheed’s page, “When this
happens, they release a lot of energy – about one million times more powerful
than a chemical reaction and 3-4 times more powerful than a fission reaction.”
With that amount of energy at humanity’s disposal, the entire technologic and
economic landscape changes. Today’s science fiction pipe dreams could become tomorrow’s
kickstarter projects.
Now, a team headed by MIT graduate Thomas McGuire, seen above
with a compact fusion prototype, is attempting to create a compact,
100-megawatt fusion reactor; enough power for a small city of 50-100k people.
McGuire and his team diverge from the fusion community’s first attempt at
fusion power, the
tokamak design (the same design being used in
ITER), instead opting for a high beta concept
that “uses a high fraction of the magnetic
field pressure, or all of its potential, so we can make our devices 10 times
smaller than previous concepts.”
A goal, if achieved, would change the world in as we know it.
We’re talking clean, limitless energy with no lingering radioactive waste, no
risk of proliferation, all in a transportable form factor. Suddenly, daunting
problems like providing clean water and electricity to the whole world becomes
a lot more palatable. Looking beyond the scope of our planet, adding fusion
energy into the mix with space travel nets shorter travel times, crucially
cutting down on radiation exposure during transit. And with space travel, comes
colonization, mining operations, and a
third-thing-you’ve-seen-in-space-movies-that-you-always-wished-was-real.
The dream of cheap, green, and plentiful fusion energy, if
realized, would undoubtedly become the catalyst for the next great human
revolution, the true vision of the atomic age our scientists since the 50s
could only envision in their dreams.
-Alan Chen
Guest Blogger
