United States scientists have achieved a potential major breakthrough in fusion energy that could effectively save the planet from our dependency on fossil fuels.
Here’s the Financial Times with the details:
US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time, according to three people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment. Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would help prove the process could provide a reliable, abundant alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy.
Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would help prove the process could provide a reliable, abundant alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy.
If this is over your head, it’s understandable, it’s over our heads as well. However, here’s a simple breakdown of what this could possibly mean aside from the planet and our species actually having a future that isn’t living in some carbon wasteland.
Although many scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore. Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years.
Imagine the possibilities with that. Powering entire cities with a fraction of the power source that of what we have now. It seems unimaginable but here we are. However, with any prospects of progress that’ll benefit mankind as a whole, there are going to be politicians funded by big oil to demonize the notion as “being too expensive” and something that’s not achievable as they continue to pump more and more money into the military-industrial complex and grand subsidies to corporations responsible for the decline of our planet. So just be prepared for that fight.
