Researchers at the University of Rochester in the US have devised a new method that simplifies the creation of fuel pellets for nuclear fusion reactors. This could aid in the mass production of energy from nuclear fusion, taking it out of the laboratory and into the real world.
Nuclear fusion has long been admired as a clean and safe way of catering to our energy requirements. Scientists have been experimenting with multiple approaches to get this done and, in December 2022, set off the first fusion ignition reaction using 192-high energy lasers.
While these could be regarded as significant milestones, we still need to figure out how this technology could be run at scale and commercial levels. One significant hurdle in this direction is how nuclear fusion fuel is prepared.
To create fuel for fusion reactors, isotopes of hydrogen, namely deuterium, and tritium, are frozen into a solid spherical shell. Since the isotopes are gaseous in their native state, scientists use extremely low temperatures to bring them into a solid state where they can be layered.
The shell is then bombarded with lasers to subject it to extremely high temperatures and pressures, following which it collapses and then ignites to undergo fusion.
While this approach can release enormous amounts of energy, a fusion-based power plant would require millions of such shells every day to supply power reliably. The frozen shell approach is too expensive and not economically feasible. READ MORE...
