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Meet the scientists who want to harness the power of the Sun

Fusion is the power source of the future, according to science fiction, but did you know that scientists have been working on this for decades, and are drawing ever closer to harnessing the power of the Sun?

What is Fusion Power?

When we look up into the sky, and see the Sun burning brightly during the day, or the stars twinkling at night, we are seeing the products of fusion. Each of these stars, our Sun included, is an immense ball of mostly hydrogen gas, and the weight of the star crushes all that hydrogen down towards the middle, where temperatures reach somewhere around 15 million degrees Celsius. These incredible temperatures cause the hydrogen atoms to fly around so fast that they slam into one other with enough force that they fuse, producing an atom of helium, along with some energy.

A star like our Sun converts roughly 600 million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second. With just one gram of hydrogen containing 602,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms, when tally everything up, the little bit of energy released by each pair of atoms fusing turns into A LOT OF ENERGY. This energy is absorbed by the outer layers of the Sun, turning them into churning circulations of hydrogen, and this outward force keeps the star from collapsing in on itself. The energy that reaches the “surface” of the Sun escapes into space, providing us with light and heating the daylight side of our planet.

Now, if we could harness just a fraction of that energy, we would never need another source of energy, ever.

We can’t bring a star down to Earth, of course, or even a piece of one, but what if we could safely mimic the way it generates energy?

This is the story behind the new documentary film, Let There Be Light, co-directed by Mila Aung-Thwin and Van Royko, which made its Canadian debut at Toronto’s 2017 Hot Docs Festival.

Now, the film is back, at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, from Sept 22 to 28, 2017.

 

 

How does a fusion reactor work?

There has been this somewhat “pie in the sky” view of fusion power, for decades now. Stories in the media have made promises that were never kept. For awhile “cold fusion” was the big thing, as it was supposed to deliver limitless energy by fusing elements at room temperature (or close to it). To date, while a few projects have produced “first plasma”, if only for a fraction of a second, we have yet to see actual fusion power produced in any significant quantities.

When it comes down to it, the concept of fusion power is simple enough – get two atomic nuclei to bang into one another with sufficient speed that they stick together, and harness the energy that is produced by that collision. Actually accomplishing that, using technology, instead of the gravitational forces at the core of a star, is far more complicated than it sounds, though.

For one, in order to overcome the natural repulsion that atomic nuclei have for one another, you have to get them moving so quickly that their speed overcomes that repulsive force. When you’re working with a plasma gas, this means driving up the heat, and it just so happens that if you want to do that in a reactor, you need to heat the plasma to around 150 million degrees.

While we still do not have a fusion reactor delivering power to our electric grids, today, Let There Be Light gives us a fascinating look into just how much progress has been made!

ITER

One of the largest, most expensive, and probably the most promising fusion project in the world is ITER – the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

Located in the south of France, this multinational effort has already been going for decades now, slowly evolving over the years into its present state. The goal of ITER is to build a Tokamak reactor, which will produce a giant magnetic bubble, shaped like a doughnut, that will be used to confine a volume of heated, electrically charged gas, known as a plasma. Keeping the plasma away from the sides of the container, while it is heated up to 150 million degrees C (by something like lasers or acoustic waves), the Tokamak will act as the “containment field” for the fusion of the plasma particles to take place in.


A cut-away view of the ITER Tokamak. Credit: ITER Organization

We sat down with Mark Henderson, the scientist in charge of the ITER project’s microwave heating system, to talk about ITER, its importance to the world and the obstacles the project faces.

 

 

General Fusion

Fusion projects are not all immense, multinational efforts, though. Another promising one detailed in the film is taking place right here in Canada, just east of Vancouver, in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Although ITER may have the best chances to actually produce fusion energy, General Fusion’s plan is to produce a smaller, cheaper way, which has a better chance of actually delivering a viable commercial reactor, in the end.

The way it will work is that it suspends a metallic fluid inside the fusion chamber, with the plasma at the very core. The metallic fluid keeps the plasma from touching the sides of the chamber, while at the same time, it acts to compress the plasma, when all the pistons along the outside of the chamber thrust inward. This increased pressure makes it easier to pump the plasma up to the temperatures needed for fusion to take place.


The core and pistons of the General Fusion reactor. Credit: Eye Steel Film

Michel Laberge, Founder and Chief Science Officer of General Fusion, talked with us about this much smaller project, and why it may be even more important than larger efforts like ITER.

 

 

When will we see fusion power?

When it comes down to it, this is the big question. With all the efforts being put into this, when will we actually see a fusion reactor come online and produce energy that feeds into our electric grids?

The answer, really, depends on us, and it depends on our politicians.

If you like the idea of limitless, safe, clean energy, these projects deserve your attention, and they deserve substantial investments, both from private sources and from our governments. Even then, it still could take a decade or more to achieve their initial goals, and even longer for a fully operational power plant. That should not deter us, though.

With the state of the world, today, the need for long-term thinking is crucial, especially when it comes to thinking of our energy needs. And really, when it comes down to it, what’s a couple of decades, when it comes to the potential to power human civilization for millions of years to come?

theweathernetwork



18 Comments on "Meet the scientists who want to harness the power of the Sun"

  1. Duncan Idaho on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 9:31 am 

    Fusion reactors are a constant, like the speed of light.
    No matter the observation point (1950 or 2017), they are always 20 years away.
    A positive return on energy invested seems remote.

  2. "Lucifer" on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 2:59 pm 

    Ah, fusion power on Earth, still the stuff of dreams or nightmares depending on who you ask.

  3. dave thompson on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 3:28 pm 

    “If you like the idea of limitless, safe, clean energy, these projects deserve your attention, and they deserve substantial investments, both from private sources and from our governments. Even then, it still could take a decade or more to achieve their initial goals, and even longer for a fully operational power plant.”
    How much will this cost and when will it come about?

  4. Anonymouse1 on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 3:32 pm 

    If you like the idea of limitless, safe, clean energy……….

    -Then start looking for something else entirely, because nuclear fusion would be NONE of those things.

    And once again, I cant help but notice, no mention of ‘cost’, not so much as adjective to try to describe the costs, which while not precisely, would be eye-watering to say the least.

    In some fairness, the fusion fan-boyz have (wisely) jettisoned ‘cheap’ from all the other fusion falsehoods.

  5. Anonymouse1 on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 3:33 pm 

    edit: precisely known

  6. Bob on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 4:12 pm 

    I don’t even read this fusion stuff anymore. It is so past dumb. Not even worth a comment.

  7. Go Speed Racer on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 4:19 pm 

    Scam money for researchers.

  8. MASTERMIND on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 7:21 pm 

    Cloggie look how BLM treats white woman?

    https://imgur.com/a/Opets

  9. Mick on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 8:18 pm 

    Hey gsr mabey they should just dump old sofas and tires in the reactor and burn that instead there’s a crap load of them out there and people will actually pay you to take them away so it’s basically free energy.

  10. Mick on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 9:14 pm 

    Should be retitled “Meet the scientists who want to harness more money from the government”

  11. Go Speed Racer on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 9:19 pm 

    Mick! Ole friend how are you?
    Great news, I already took out a patent
    on filling up ITER reactor with old
    recliners, tires, scrap wood, and light on
    fire! It’s the only way to make ITER net
    energy positive! Check out my old posts.
    I figure we just weld a chimney onto
    that thing and it will make a good
    trash incinerator.
    Not good for much else!

  12. Go Speed Racer on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 9:25 pm 

    Here is how Europeans burn their sofas
    Waste to Energy source:
    https://youtu.be/o9pb-2JTgAY

    Here is Kim fat kid responding to Trump
    at the UN:
    https://youtu.be/QBP9RtcNROc

  13. GregT on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 9:26 pm 

    “what’s a couple of decades, when it comes to the potential to power human civilization for millions of years to come?”

    If the humans find a source of limitless energy, it is highly doubtful they would last for another hundred years, never mind millions of years.

    Who writes this crap anyways?

  14. GregT on Wed, 20th Sep 2017 9:29 pm 

    Besides, it isn’t the energy itself that is the problem. It’s what the humans use that energy for.

  15. Cloggie on Thu, 21st Sep 2017 1:42 am 

    If the humans find a source of limitless energy, it is highly doubtful they would last for another hundred years, never mind millions of years.

    My fear is that someday they will get fusion energy to work and that the moon will be crowded with tourists.

  16. deadlykillerbeaz on Thu, 21st Sep 2017 4:24 am 

    I tore down an old dwelling that had outlived its usefulness. It was an eyesore, had to go.

    Razed the thing. After the building was on the ground, you have to begin the cleanup.

    You haul away non-combustibles, then you burn the old non-usable lumber, then you haul away the ashes.

    You have to cut the corners on the walls, hook a cable to one wall at the top, hook the other end of the cable to the clevis on the drawbar, the 1/2″ wire rope is 75 feet long with two loops one on each end, put the tractor in gear and drive forward, the building drops faster than the World Trade Centers.

    It ain’t an easy task. Of course, there is an all clear.

    I’m sure after the discovery that the fusion reactor hardware is useless, it’ll be a big job to haul the junk to the landfill.

    Still is fun building a shitpile though.

  17. GregT on Thu, 21st Sep 2017 10:41 am 

    “My fear is that someday they will get fusion energy to work and that the moon will be crowded with tourists.”

    If there is intelligent life somewhere in the universe, their greatest fear should be the cancerous ape infestation spreading beyond the planet Earth.

  18. Cloggie on Fri, 22nd Sep 2017 1:40 am 

    Here a form of energy that does work:

    segmented wind towers

    https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/segmented-wind-towers/

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