Nuclear fusion has been called the holy grail of energy for the longest time and scientists have been hard at work for decades to use this process to generate power.
Nuclear fusion is the same reaction that powers the Sun. At the core of our star, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms. This process releases a tremendous amount of heat and light which we can feel on the Earth even though we are 150 million kilometres away from the Sun.
This is different from the infamous nuclear fission that powered the atomic bombs that were used in the second world war. In nuclear fission, a heavier atom splits into smaller ones which also releases a lot of energy.
Scientists have been trying to replicate nuclear fusion which unlike nuclear fission, doesn't produce any long-lived radioactive nuclear waste. If achieved, it would be a limitless clean source of energy for humanity which could power our civilisation for millennia to come.
Is China Close?
There have been a lot of rumours coming out of China that the country is close to cracking nuclear fusion and achieving the holy grail of energy. Several people had speculated that China could achieve this by the end of 2019.
Recently in November, a Chinese scientist who is a part of the team that is working on creating the first 'artificial sun', gave an update on their development. He stated that construction of the nuclear reactor was going smoothly and that it should be functional by 2020.
The device is named HL-2M tokamak and if they are successful, it would pave the way for nuclear fusion to become a viable option for power generation. Right now, scientists are trying to figure out to make this whole process cost-effective and this development should provide the breakthroughs they are looking for.
Technology is truly advancing at an unparalleled rate. What was thought possible to be achieved only after a few decades is on the cusp of becoming reality. The current predictions are that cold fusion will be achieved by 2050 but by the looks of it, that might happen a lot sooner.
It will be very interesting to see what happens when China does succeed with ... cracking nuclear fusion... I can imagine that a lot of other countries will not be so happy, especially those that rely on oil for their income.
It would be so nice thought to see a small suitcase size power generation system that could provide all the power an individual needs for their daily needs. We could tear down the power lines, blow up the damns, and stop most of the drilling, (not all of course because there are a lot of other products that utilize oil by products). The biggest boon though would be the ability to look out at nature with out power transmission lines destroying the view.
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The oil industry will take an instant hit. It will be like comparing a landline with a smartphone.
I agree. Nuclear fusion will solve all our energy woes and make the whole process of generating power sooooo much simpler. We wouldn't need so many different small things and we could just get rid of them all. Nature will take a sigh of relief.
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