Because nuclear fusion is still a long way off

Despite the successful experiment in the United States, nuclear fusion is still far from commercial use. But in the long run it could be a fundamental ally for decarbonisation. Marco Dell'Aguzzo's point

For the first time, a nuclear fusion experiment has produced more energy than was consumed in the process.

The one obtained by the Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California is an extraordinary and historic result, which brings us closer to a technology that promises abundant, stable electricity, free of carbon dioxide and also low in radioactive waste: the main waste from hydrogen fusion is in fact the tritium , a low-radioactive, fast-decaying isotope.

Be careful with the enthusiasm, though. Despite the milestone achieved in the United States, nuclear fusion still has many engineering and economic challenges to overcome (the entire process needs to be made more efficient and less expensive, and scaled up) and is far from commercial use.

Therefore, it is unlikely that it will make a decisive contribution to the energy transition. Also because the technologies useful for the immediate reduction of emissions – renewables, batteries, bio and synthetic fuels, carbon capture, nuclear fission – are already available and proven, or are at a more advanced level of development.

But the search must not stop. Because in the long term, around 2050, when we will (hopefully) have already reached climate neutrality, fusion could be a fundamental ally for the profound decarbonisation of human activities, beyond the "net zero".

– Read also: What is Eni doing on nuclear fusion

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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/fusione-nucleare-tempi/ on Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:18:35 +0000.