18 Facts About Fusion power

Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions.

Fusion power processes require fuel and a confined environment with sufficient temperature, pressure, and confinement time to create a plasma in which fusion can occur.

Fusion power reactions occur when two or more atomic nuclei come close enough for long enough that the nuclear force pulling them together exceeds the electrostatic force pushing them apart, fusing them into heavier nuclei.

Fuels considered for fusion power have all been light elements like the isotopes of hydrogen—protium, deuterium, and tritium.

Fusion power reactors operate with seconds or even microseconds worth of fuel at any moment.

Each Fusion power circuit includes 154 individual magnets, and should a quench event occur, the entire combined stored energy of these magnets must be dumped at once.

Fusion power reactors create far less radioactive material than fission reactors.

Fusion power commonly proposes the use of deuterium as fuel and many current designs use lithium.

However, the economic obstacles to tokamak-based fusion power remain immense, requiring investment to fund prototype tokamak reactors and development of new supply chains.

Notably, in June 2021, General Fusion power announced it would accept the UK government's offer to host the world's first substantial public-private partnership fusion demonstration plant, at Culham Centre for Fusion power Energy.

Fusion power plants are expected to face large start up and capital costs.

In some applications, fusion power could provide the base load, especially if including integrated thermal storage and cogeneration and considering the potential for retrofitting coal plants.

Fusion power significantly contributing to climate change by 2050 seems unlikely without substantial breakthroughs and a space race mentality emerging, but a contribution by 2100 appears possible, with the extent depending on the type and particularly cost of technology pathways.

Fusion power promised to provide more energy for a given weight of fuel than any fuel-consuming energy source currently in use.

Fusion power could be used for so-called 'deep space' propulsion within the solar system and for interstellar space exploration where solar energy is not available, including via antimatter-fusion hybrid drives.

Fusion power'story is a convoluted mixture of investigations into nuclear physics and a parallel exploration of engineering challenges ranging from identifying appropriate materials and fuels, to improving heating and confinement techniques.

Quest for fusion power has proceeded along multiple trajectories since the outset.

General Fusion power developed plasma injector technology and Tri Alpha Energy tested its C-2U device.