Fusion seems nearer than ever - but it won’t be the silver bullet to stop climate change.
Articles on Nuclear fusion
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Fusion produces more energy per gram of fuel than any other process that could be achieved on Earth.
A US laboratory has announced an exciting new leap forward in nuclear fusion, but it may be several decades before we see this form of energy come to fruition.
Scientists are working on ways to make lots of energy by converting matter into energy. The trick is keeping the process under control. One possibility is nuclear fusion – the Sun’s power source.
Building a mini star on Earth, and holding it together inside a reactor, is not an easy task.
If you could go right into the middle of the Sun, everything would be incredibly bright - and perhaps a little bit pink.
Despite recent reports, nuclear fusion-powered energy isn’t mere years from solving our clean energy needs. But physicists are making encouraging strides nonetheless.
Nuclear fusion may power post-carbon societies – but it won’t save us from climate change.
It’s true that here on Earth, if you want to burn something you need oxygen. But the Sun is different. It is not burning with the same kind of flame you would have on Earth if you burned a candle.
People long assumed all the elements we see now were created during the Big Bang. But on May 2, 1952, an astronomer reported spotting new elements coming from an old star and changed our origin story.
As fusion becomes more technically viable, it’s time to assess whether it’s worth the money because breakthroughs in the lab don’t guarantee success in the marketplace.
In what came to be known as the Thule incident, an American bomber crashed in Greenland, spreading radioactive wreckage across 3 square miles of a frozen fjord. Denmark was not happy.
Euratom is responsible for nuclear non-proliferation, safety, and research.
Fusion power, if it works, offers vast amounts of clean energy and almost zero carbon emissions. A new experimental fusion reactor has come online, and it uses a curious twisted stellarator design.
Fusion development takes time. It cannot be developed in miniature and then be simply scaled up. But we must work now, to make it possible to meet humanity’s need for abundant, clean energy.
In the summer of 1946, the U.S. government detonated the first of many atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands. Seventy years of radiation exposure later, residents are still fighting for justice.
Fire has played a vital role in human history, and will continue to. Recent advances in fusion herald the freeing of fire from captivity back into its natural form.
Hoverboards, self-fitting jackets, nuclear fusion generators…. Some of Back to the Future’s wacky inventions are closer to reality than you might think.
The nuclear deal South Africa signed with Russia is set to be massively expensive and comes with a fair amount of risks.
Top contributors
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Professor, Mathematical Sciences Institute and School of Computing, Australian National University
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Lecturer in Applied Mathematics and Physics, Griffith University
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Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, Zinkle Faculty Fellow, University of Tennessee
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Timothy J. Jorgensen is a Friend of The Conversation.
Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University
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Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Physics, University of Birmingham
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PhD Candidate in Politics and Environment, University of York
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Applied Radiation Physics Section Leader, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy
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Professor of Physics, Imperial College London
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Professor of Nuclear Physics, Michigan State University
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Professor of Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London
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University Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Astrophysics, Michigan State University
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Deputy Director for Research, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University
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Lecturer in International Studies, University of Washington
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Target design leader, National Ignition Campaign, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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Head of Physics and Astronomy, Curtin University