UK scientists make major nuclear fusion energy breakthrough: Everything you need to know

UK-based scientists have made a major breakthrough in their quest to turn nuclear fusion energy into a viable low carbon, low radiation energy source.

The Joint European Torus (JET), a fusion reactor based in the UK’s Oxfordshire, produced 59 megajoules of energy, equivalent to 11 megawatts of power, over a five-second period.

This is more than double of what was achieved in 1997 in similar tests at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site in Oxford.

The achievement that is being hailed as a milestone has shown potential of fusion to deliver a safe and sustainable low-carbon energy.

Let’s briefly examine nuclear fusion energy, how it is different from other forms of energy, why is it being hailed a milestone and whether it can help fight climate crisis:

Nuclear fusion energy and the latest research

The best and easiest understandable example of nuclear fusion energy is the sun. The process of nuclear fusion generates heat in the sun.

Creating nuclear fusion energy in laboratories has proven difficult as it consumes far more energy than it produces, making it useless as an energy source at a large scale.

Existing nuclear power stations work on nuclear fission reactions that create energy by splitting atoms, a nuclear fusion reactor works exactly opposite of that, it releases energy by combining atoms.

The latest research by UK-based scientists has built a process that allows for the self-heating of matter when it is in a plasma state, using nuclear fusion, which could represent a major step towards the use of nuclear fusion.

According to Independent, the scientists took the hydrogen isotopes deuterium – which can be found in seawater – and tritium which is made in a reactor. They used the hydrogen isotopes to create a burning plasma.

In a burning plasma, the particles that are made when the nuclei fuse then become the main source of the heating of that plasma.

In short, the researchers were able to compress and heat a plasma, which will then be heated by the reactions themselves, allowing the energy to sustain itself.

Due to huge gravitational pressure in the core of the Sun, nuclear fusion is possible at around 10 million Celsius temperature. Since creating such pressures on earth is not possible, temperatures need to be much higher – above 100 million Celsius.

Since no material can withstand such temperature, fusion is achieved in a super-heated gas, or plasma, held inside a doughnut-shaped magnetic field.

According to the BBC, the JET lab in Oxfordshire has been pioneering this fusion approach for nearly 40 years.

According to Al Jazeera, a larger and more advanced version of JET, called ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is currently being built in southern France, where the Oxford data will prove vital when it comes online, possibly as soon as 2025.

For the past 10 years, the JET has been configured to replicate the anticipated ITER set-up in France.

Nuclear fusion to help with the climate crisis?

At the present stage, nuclear fusion energy cannot be generated at a commercial level.

Fusion power is estimated to be commercialised in 20 years, which would then need to scale up to be able to replace existing energy sources which may take a few more decades.

If achieved and commercialised, nuclear fusion energy is expected to power the second half of the century. However, that may be a little late to handle the worsening climate crisis.

India’s strides towards nuclear fusion energy

The ITER set-up in southern France is being developed by 35 nations including India.

India’s engineering giant Larsen & Toubro developed a massive 29×29 metre cryostat for ITER. The crystat acts as a thermos, covering the reactor and insulating the superconducting magnets at ultra-cold temperature from the outside environment.

India formally joined the ITER project in 2006. It contributes nine per cent of the equipment, manpower and resources to create the massive tokamak. It has so far delivered cryostat, in-wall shielding, cooling water system, cryogenic system among other integral components to the project.

India has been participating in the project via ‘in-kind’ procurement of ITER components and has delivered cryostat, in-wall shielding, cooling water system, cryogenic system, ion-cyclotron RF heating system, electron cyclotron RF heating system, diagnostic neutral beam system, power supplies to the project.

Apart from supporting the ITER project, India has been conducting its own research in developing nuclear fusion energy.

According to a report by India Today, India has successfully developed its own tokamak Aditya which started functioning in 1989 and sustained a plasma temperature for 0.4 seconds.

The set-up was upgraded in 2016 and has been in the experimental phase since.

With inputs from agencies

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