Let’s discuss whether fusion energy can replace the dangers of nuclear power generation. This blog post will focus on the advantages of fusion and its feasibility, and explore its possibilities.
Introduction
Do you know the Korean movie “Pandora”? This movie depicts the efforts to prevent the leakage of radioactive waste and a secondary explosion caused by poor nuclear power plant construction in a situation where the nuclear power plant explodes due to the largest earthquake ever recorded, and many people are affected by the leakage of radioactivity into the air. “Pandora” delivers a lesson to make people aware of the dangers of nuclear power plants and to raise their awareness.
The main subject of this film is nuclear power generation, which is usually called ‘nuclear power plants.’ It is a method of generating electricity by turning a turbine generator with steam produced by energy generated through a nuclear fission chain reaction. The nuclear fission reaction that runs a nuclear power plant is a type of nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei with a large mass number, such as uranium and plutonium, collide with neutrons or become unstable and split into smaller atomic nuclei. When the nuclear mass decreases before and after nuclear fission, the reduced mass is converted into energy and released.
However, when nuclear fission occurs in a nuclear power plant, a large amount of radioactive material is generated and a lot of heat is generated, which is a great risk of leading to a major accident. The nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 contaminated much of Europe with radiation, and the explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in March 2011 spread radioactive materials throughout Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. The accident melted down the reactor core, which penetrated the steel pressure vessel and the concrete containment vessel. The large amount of water injected to cool the reactor core flowed into the sea and contaminated the seafood in the area with radiation. Eight years have passed, but many people are still suffering from the aftereffects of radiation, and the contaminated environment has not been restored to its original state.
Aware of the dangers of nuclear power generation and the controversy over the disposal of radioactive waste generated during the power generation process, many countries are implementing policies to reduce nuclear power generation and developing new and renewable energy. One of these is nuclear fusion energy.
What is nuclear fusion?
Let’s learn about the nuclear fusion process that generates nuclear fusion energy, a type of renewable energy. Nuclear fusion refers to the process in which nuclei with a light mass, such as hydrogen, combine to form a heavy nucleus. The binding energy generated by a nucleon with a mass lighter than that of an iron atom is smaller, so the heavier the nucleus, the more stable it becomes. At this time, the difference in binding energy is manifested as a mass defect, which generates enormous nuclear fusion energy. In addition, if energy is supplied from the outside, the binding of two nuclei is possible, allowing nuclear fusion to occur even for nuclei heavier than the iron nucleus. And once fusion occurs, the energy does not easily split even if it becomes lower during the process of splitting into two nuclei. This process of nuclear fusion is the same as the principle by which the sun produces light and heat, so the nuclear fusion device is sometimes called an “artificial sun.”
Stars that generate their own energy and emit light like the sun use nuclear fusion and become superheated plasma at temperatures of over 100 million degrees. In this state, atomic nuclei fuse to generate nuclear fusion and energy. In the early 20th century, people did not know how the sun continued to generate enormous amounts of solar energy. According to the law of conservation of energy, the amount of energy emitted from the surface of the sun and the amount of energy existing inside the sun must be equal, which was impossible with the energy sources known at the time, such as wood and coal. Afterwards, when it became known through various studies that the sun obtains energy through nuclear fusion, many people began to study whether it could be used in practice.
In addition to nuclear fusion power plants, nuclear weapons developed using this nuclear fusion technology are hydrogen bombs. Since hydrogen bombs do not generate large amounts of radioactivity during the hydrogen fusion reaction, hydrogen bombs themselves are relatively eco-friendly. However, most of the explosive power of a hydrogen bomb is determined by nuclear fusion, which is caused by a nuclear explosion. The reaction cannot take place without the release of a large amount of X-rays as the initial detonation. Also, the efficiency of hydrogen bombs is currently comparable to that of TNT with the same mass, and they are in need of development.
Advantages of nuclear fusion
Why do people conduct various studies to develop nuclear fusion technology and use energy? To answer this question, we must first talk about the advantages of nuclear fusion technology.
First, nuclear fusion uses materials that exist in nature as raw materials. This is a common feature of most renewable energy sources, but unlike nuclear fission technology, which uses uranium with limited reserves, it uses materials that can be easily obtained from nature. Nuclear fusion technology uses deuterium (²H), which can be obtained from seawater, and tritium (³H), which is produced from lithium, which can be easily extracted from soil, as raw materials. Hydrogen is currently readily available on Earth, and more can be obtained in space, so there is no need to worry about resource depletion.
Next, nuclear fusion is economical because the efficiency of its fuel is very high. The energy generated during nuclear fusion is about 638 GJ per gram of hydrogen, which means that the nuclear fusion reaction produces seven times more energy than the nuclear fission reaction when using the same mass of fuel. In addition, the nuclear fusion energy generated using 1g of hydrogen is comparable to the energy generated by 21 tons of coal and about 60 drums of oil, boasting tremendous energy efficiency.
In addition, nuclear fusion is a very safe technology. Nuclear fission power generation is a method of controlling the reaction using a neutron moderator while continuously supplying a constant amount of thermal energy due to the presence of a critical mass that causes a chain reaction. In contrast, nuclear fusion power uses a method in which hydrogen is replenished into the fusion reactor as needed, so there is little chance of an explosion even if a problem occurs in controlling the nuclear reaction in the reactor. Hydrogen, the fuel for nuclear fusion power, exists in the reactor in a plasma state, and unlike solids, hydrogen plasma has a very low density, meaning that it can only hold a small amount of heat energy per volume. Therefore, if the plasma hits the inner wall of the reactor due to control failure, the plasma disappears and the nuclear reaction is interrupted.
Finally, nuclear fusion is environmentally friendly and produces almost no harmful substances. The amount of radiation generated by nuclear fusion power generation using natural hydrogen is actually greater than that of nuclear fission power generation. However, unlike nuclear fission power generation, which produces radioactive materials that are fatal to the human body, and thermal power generation, which produces harmful substances such as large amounts of sulfur oxides and carbon monoxide and releases them into the atmosphere, the nuclear fusion process produces non-radioactive and harmless helium in an environment that is harmless to the human body and the environment.
As such, nuclear fusion uses natural materials to generate energy and is highly efficient and economical. If we can harness the way the sun and nature obtain energy, we will be able to enjoy the aforementioned benefits. Therefore, many countries are continuing to conduct research on nuclear fusion, as they believe that there is no other efficient alternative to solve humanity’s energy problems than nuclear fusion, at a time when the problems of existing energy sources, such as resource depletion and environmental pollution, are intensifying.
Commercialization of nuclear fusion
Many countries are making great efforts to commercialize nuclear fusion, which has many advantages. Once the scientific feasibility of nuclear fusion was proven, the world’s nuclear fusion research shifted toward commercialization, with the goal of engineering applications and commercial electricity production. Accordingly, advanced nuclear fusion countries have established international joint research institutions to share research results and accelerate commercialization.
This is ‘ITER.’ In Latin, it means ‘way,’ and it contains the hope of humanity for ‘the way to new energy.’ The ITER project is a mega-scale international cooperative R&D project to jointly build an international thermonuclear experimental reactor to finally prove the possibility of commercializing nuclear fusion energy in preparation for the risk of fossil fuel depletion and environmental issues. This project was initially led by four countries: the United States, Russia, the European Union, and Japan, but since then, South Korea, China, and India have joined, and it now consists of seven countries in total.
The Future of Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion is steadily advancing. To put nuclear fusion into practical use, outstanding science and technology are required, and recently, the question has been raised, “Can nuclear fusion be realized at room temperature?”
There have been a steady stream of people who claim that nuclear fusion can be achieved at room temperature. In March 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann of the University of Utah in the United States announced that they had succeeded in a room-temperature nuclear fusion experiment. The experiment used palladium, which has the ability to absorb hydrogen, but the results of the nuclear fusion reaction were inconsistent and did not receive recognition from the scientific community. Since then, various claims have been made, including the bubble fusion reaction, but it seems difficult to achieve room temperature nuclear fusion with current science and technology.
The future energy market will be dominated by new and renewable energy due to environmental issues, and nuclear fusion energy will lead the change in the future energy supply system as it can supply all forms of energy. However, research on nuclear fusion energy is still in its infancy and is just beginning to take off. In the future, we will need to diagnose plasma to maintain a stable state and solve technical problems such as removing impurities. To do this, we need to come up with long-term plans and policies that guarantee competent talent and long-term support.
Conclusion
Nuclear fusion has also been frequently featured in recent movies. In the movie “Iron Man,” the main character Tony Stark uses a room-temperature nuclear fusion device as a power source to move his Iron Man suit. He used this device to fight various villains and became a superhero. In the movie “Spider-Man 2,” Doctor Octopus appears as a scientist who is researching nuclear fusion using tritium (tritium) in an attempt to gain infinite power through nuclear fusion. His nuclear fusion experiments repeatedly fail, but the nuclear fusion reactor itself becomes an entity with a desire to control humanity. In these films, nuclear fusion is described as a technology that can harness infinite energy.
The problem with nuclear fusion power generation is the neutron beam. The neutron beam is a stream of high-speed neutrons that irradiate the reactor. Unlike nuclear fission power generation, which requires the isolation of all reaction products from the environment, nuclear fusion power generation only requires the disposal of the reactor, so the amount of harmful waste discharged into the environment is much smaller than that of nuclear fission power generation. Although the amount of radioactive waste produced is small compared to that from nuclear fission, it is important to recognize that it is produced.
I am in favor of nuclear fusion power. Nuclear fusion will bring many benefits. However, it is important to keep in mind that nuclear fusion technology is still being developed and although it is expected to provide numerous benefits, there may be some disadvantages that have not yet been discovered. This is because, as we can see in the history of technological development, unforeseen problems can arise and have a significant impact. Therefore, it is up to humans to determine how to use and utilize nuclear fusion, which offers infinite possibilities, and I believe that this also comes with responsibility. Researchers who study and develop nuclear fusion, as well as those who will use it in the future when it is commercialized, must take responsibility to prevent the abuse of nuclear fusion. In addition, if nuclear fusion becomes a source of unlimited energy, we will need to come up with a way to solve national problems such as war.
