Nuclear fusion:a historic result from the USA, but there are still many technological challenges to overcome

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After more than half a century of research into nuclear fusion, a major breakthrough comes from the United States that could pave the way for enormous amounts of clean energy in the future.Researchers at the US National Ignition Facility, in California, said their fusion experiments released more energy than was pumped out by the lab's huge, high-powered lasers.This is a historic achievement, known as ignition or energy gain.Until now, in fact, experiments conducted around the world had required more energy than they had generated.However, writes the Guardian, this does not mean that we are in an energy utopia.This technology is still far from being ready to be transformed into power plants, it will not have any immediate effects on the climate crisis, but, as mentioned, it is a big step for science and research which demonstrates that fusion is a viable path to meet the planet's growing energy demand, replicating the reaction that has occurred in the heart of our sun for billions of years.

BREAKING NEWS:This is an announcement that has been decades in the making.

On December 5, 2022 a team from DOE's @Livermore_Lab made history by achieving fusion ignition.

This breakthrough will change the future of clean power and America's national defense forever. pic.twitter.com/hFHWbmCNQJ

— U.S.Department of Energy (@ENERGY) December 13, 2022

The United States has “taken the first tentative step towards a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world,” commented Jill Hruby of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).Just one kilogram of fusion fuel, composed of heavy forms of hydrogen, called deuterium and tritium, provides an amount of energy equal to 10 million kilograms of fossil fuel, without releasing either greenhouse gases or radioactive by-products.

The experiments were conducted at the National Ignition Facility, a vast complex at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, near San Jose, California, built to perform experiments that recreate, briefly and in miniature, the processes unleashed inside nuclear bombs , allowing the United States to maintain its nuclear warheads without resorting to nuclear tests, and to research nuclear fusion and clean energy.

To achieve the reactions, the researchers fire up to 192 giant lasers into a centimeter-long gold cylinder, called a hohlraum.The intense energy heats the container to more than 3 million degrees Celsius - hotter than the surface of the sun - and blasts a sphere of solid-state deuterium and tritium the size of a peppercorn with X-rays.The X-rays trigger a rocket-like implosion, bringing temperatures and pressures to extreme levels seen only inside stars, giant planets and nuclear detonations.The implosion reaches a speed of 400 km per second and causes the fusion of deuterium and tritium.

In the latest experiment, the researchers fired about 2 megajoules of laser energy, and the neutrons produced generated about 3 megajoules of energy, resulting in an energy gain of about 50%.“Producing energy took less time than it takes light to travel an inch [ed, 2 1/2 centimeters],” said Dr. Marvin Adams, of the NNSA.

This is not an exciting result for the absolute energy released, observe on the Guardian Arthur Thurrell, author of the book “The Star Builders:Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet”:“It's not much, only enough to turn on a couple of kettles.”This discovery is exciting because “it is the first scientific evidence that fusion can produce more energy output than input.This nuclear discovery is, in many ways, what all fusion scientists have been waiting for.Before that, they couldn't even say that the scientific principle was an empirical fact."

Obviously, Thurrell continues, “this does not mean that the fusion energy we can use is already a reality.This is a single result from a single experiment."In fact, there are still many technological challenges to overcome to make this energy source more accessible and sustainable.As he summarized al Guardian Dr. Mark Wenman, a nuclear materials scholar at Imperial College London, the result is a "fantastic scientific discovery, something we have never achieved in 70 years of trying", but "there are still many challenges to face:how to get the energy out of the system, how to sustain the energy long enough to be useful, how to scale the energy, and whether the energy can be cheap enough to compete with other sources.”

“A commercially viable plant would produce 30 times the energy output per energy input (30x), rather than the 1.54x seen in this experiment,” explains Thurrell.And even with that much energy released, there would be engineering and economic challenges to overcome, such as firing the laser 10 times per second, rather than once a day.Furthermore, giant lasers may not even be the best way to get cheap fusion energy:Promising alternative approaches using magnetic fields to trap the 150 mC fuel are being explored.And then there is the cost of the spheres.Those used in the US experiment cost tens of thousands of dollars, but for a viable power plant they should cost a few cents.Another problem is how to get the energy out as heat.

Some they also highlighted that the approximately 300 megajoules needed to power the lasers were not included in the calculation of the energy produced by fusion, but - Thurrell explains further - this plant was designed only to demonstrate scientific feasibility:“No government would fund a prototype power plant without first reaching this milestone, and there is still a long way to go between this experimental achievement and a power plant.”

And then there is the question of power plants.While the physics of fusion is well understood, the engineering challenges of creating a functioning reactor are enormous and the costs are currently sky-high, writes New Scientist in an article commenting on the discovery.Proven nuclear fission plants, the ones we have relied on for decades, take about five years to build.Fusion reactors may take longer.

So, this result still does not bring us closer to the availability of fusion energy needed on the electricity grid, but – to use an image used by Thurrell on the Guardian – it's like someone suddenly blowing a trumpet in our ear and telling us:“It can be done!”.

According to Dr. Kim Budil, director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with sufficient investment, “a few decades of research could put us in a position to build a power plant.”A power plant based on alternative technology used in the Joint European Torus (JET) in Oxfordshire could be ready sooner, he added.

“In a way everything changes;in another, nothing changes,” explains Justin Wark, professor of physics at the University of Oxford and director of the Oxford Center for High Energy Density Science.“This result proves what most physicists have always believed:fusion in the laboratory is possible.However, the obstacles to overcome to build something like a commercial reactor are enormous and should not be underestimated."And on the times, he adds:“Asking how long it will take to overcome the technological challenges ahead is like asking the Wright brothers how long it would take to build a plane that crossed the Atlantic immediately after their maiden flight.I understand that everyone wants to think that this is the great solution to the energy crisis.This is not the case, and anyone who claims it with certainty is misleading.It is highly unlikely that fusion will have an impact quickly enough to affect the current climate change crisis, so we must not abandon our efforts to do so."

The latest results, concludes Wark, demonstrate that “basic science works - the laws of physics do not prevent us from achieving the goal - the problems are technical and economic”.

The plan to protect 30% of the land and sea divides COP15 participants on biodiversity:“The 30x30 goal cannot be achieved without indigenous peoples”

The goal of protecting 30% of land and sea (30x30) by 2030 is the focus of the COP15 on biodiversity underway in Montreal, Canada, but how to achieve this goal there is no consensus yet among the participants at the summit.One of the central issues is respect for the rights of indigenous populations, custodians of natural areas for thousands of years and then forced to abandon their territories precisely because of the establishment of protected areas.Indigenous peoples represent approximately 5% of the world's population, but protect 80% of the remaining biodiversity.The language used during COP15 appears to accommodate the demands of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC).There is talk of “rights-based conservation”, but in the current draft text, which will be completed at the end of the conference, by 17 December, the role of IPLCs within 30x30 is still contested.Many are cautious - and they have the most to lose.

“There are very, very painful stories of violation of rights, of killing, of displacement, of extinction of indigenous peoples, due to the expansion or establishment of protected areas,” says Jennifer Corpuz, who is part of Kankana-ey Igorot, indigenous people in the northern part of the Philippines, and representative of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity.“We are here as indigenous peoples to convey the message that we cannot achieve ambitious conservation goals without fully reflecting on, respecting and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples…We cannot reach the 30x30 goal without indigenous peoples.”

“Artisanal fishermen around the world tell us they are struggling with marine protected areas:in some cases they are moved in the name of conservation", he adds al Guardian Amélie Tapella of Centro Crocevia Internazionale.Not including these communities risks losing invaluable knowledge and skills.“If governments focus only on creating marine protected areas, without consulting artisanal fishing communities or entrusting them with direct management, we will lose their unique knowledge that allows us to find the key to a world where man and nature coexist ".

In Indonesia's Coral Triangle, for example, a study conducted in June that compared different management styles of marine protected areas found that allowing indigenous peoples to participate in their management produced more biomass than applying sanctions heavy.In the UK, the Sustainable Food Trust found that artisanal fishers, despite employing ten times as many people as industrial fishers, have a lower environmental impact because they use much less fuel and produce fewer carbon emissions.

As long as a "top-down" approach is followed, the solutions reached will not be “the solution”, says Lakpa Nuri Sherpa, Nepalese, representative of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact.“It is vital that IPLCs are treated with trust and respect, in a spirit of true partnership.Such an approach is being tested in Port St Johns, Eastern Cape, South Africa:a collaborative, “bottom up” project that will treat the community and government as equal partners in resource conservation.This pilot project, led by WWF South Africa, will offer the fishing community access to better markets for east coast lobster, a locally priced low-priced species, in exchange for committing to more sustainable fishing practices .

Meanwhile, the governments they are still divided on how to remove subsidies from harmful activities such as unsustainable fishing and agriculture.The European Union has backed a proposal to redirect harmful subsidies towards activities that protect nature, as well as eliminating harmful subsidies by 2025, but countries such as China and Japan have opposed eliminating subsidies altogether.Argentina, one of the world's largest meat producers, has supported eliminating harmful subsidies but has questioned the world's ability to effectively redirect them, seeing them as a form of "creative accounting" to justify current subsidies.

EU finds agreement on carbon border adjustment mechanism

The European Union has reached an agreement on the carbon border adjustment mechanism following all-night negotiations.The measure, reports Reuters, will impose a tariff on carbon dioxide [CO2] emissions resulting from imports of polluting goods such as steel and cement.This is a unique taxation of its kind, so far, which aims to support the decarbonisation path of European industries.Companies importing these materials into the EU will be required to purchase certificates to cover their embodied CO2 emissions.The mechanism is designed to apply the same CO2 cost to overseas businesses and industries in EU countries, already required to buy permits from the EU carbon market when they pollute.This decision will likely have disruptive effects among US manufacturers, writes The Wall Street Journal. [Continue reading here]

Gas, the International Energy Agency warns:“Next year the European Union could find itself in a worse energy crisis than this year”

The European Union has enough gas for this winter but could face a shortage next year if Russia further cuts supplies and Chinese gas demand recovers from pandemic lockdown-induced lows, he said the International Energy Agency (IEA), urging governments to act more quickly to save energy and expand renewable sources.According to the IEA, the EU could face a gas deficit of 27 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2023.[Continue reading here]

Brazilian gold miners have dug an illegal “clandestine road” into the Amazon rainforest

Brazilian mining mafias have dug a 120 km clandestine road in the jungle in recent months to smuggle excavators in and search for gold in lands that should be protected.This is what emerges from an investigation by Guardian.“We believe there are at least four excavators, and this takes mining in Yanomami territory to the next level, to a level of colossal destruction,” said Danicley de Aguiar, a Greenpeace environmentalist leading the reconnaissance mission along the border Brazilian with Venezuela.The arrival of the excavators is the latest chapter in a half-century-long assault by powerful, politically connected mining groups that decimated Yanomami villages, and which intensified after the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro as president .[Continue reading here]

The impact of the extraction of critical minerals for the energy transition on indigenous populations

The impacts of industrial mining on the lands of indigenous peoples and farmers are well known.Increasing demand for critical energy transition minerals (ETMs) could lead to a new generation of mining projects where industrial and energy interests and environmental and social sustainability will once again collide.According to an article published on Nature Sustainability, As the global energy system rapidly transitions to renewable energy, at least 30 minerals and metals will form the material basis for this transition.It is crucial that political leaders are aware of this tension and insist that the rights of indigenous and peasant populations be taken into account when making climate mitigation decisions.[Continue reading here]

Polar bears and climate change:what does science say?

The image of a polar bear stuck on melting sea ice is often used as a symbol of the world's rapidly changing climate.However, from time to time, the media claims that the situation of polar bears may not be so serious.But according to an analysis by Carbon Brief the scientific consensus is clear:As Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears are finding it more difficult to hunt, mate and reproduce.[Continue reading here]

Preview image: Damien Jemison/NIF