Fusion Power Fantasies

 

"Nuclear fusion, the ‘holy grail’ of power, was always 30 years away—now it’s a matter of when, not if, fusion comes online to power AI" (Jordan Blum, Fortune)

Here we go again. In support of someone's hidden agenda, nuclear fusion reactors are being promoted as an answer to global warming (no carbon emissions) as well as a veritable cornucopia of unlimited clean energy. I am going to be brief, ignoring a lot of B.S. to focus on a key component of nuclear fusion rarely mentioned in these PR articles. Nuclear fusion naturally takes place in the sun's core at 15 million degrees centigrade aided by the sun's immense gravity which facilitates the process. In Earth's much weaker gravity, the nuclear fusion process requires a much higher temperature! Europe has plans for a reactor (tokamak) which they claim will heat the plasma to 150 million degrees centigrade, 10 times hotter than the sun's core. All they need is funding. Lots and lots of funding. Does constructing a nuclear fusion reactor with an operating temperature of 150 million degrees centigrade sound doable to you?

Whoa, Keith, haven't they already created nuclear fusion in a lab proving its viability? Not really. They took a very small amount of matter and super heated it with 192 lasers which enabled the fusion process for an infinitesmally small period of time (reportedly lasting less than 100 trillionths of a second). The small amount of energy produced during this infinitesmally brief time could easily be contained in the lab proving that if you have a lab with 192 lasers you can induce nuclear fusion for the briefest of times without melting everything as far as the eye can see. But a continuous process with a core operating temperature of 150 million degrees centigrade? Get real. This is the answer to global warming? A planetary heat source 10 times hotter than the sun? 

No doubt these nuclear physicists can produce endless calculations which only a few can understand which prove that I am an ignorant buffoon. Maybe so. But outrageous claims require overwhelming proof. My skepticism is not reduced by the knowledge that the lab in question is located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which is extensively involved in nuclear weapons research and which now may need to justify their research with claims of beneficial social good in order to secure additional funding. 

To me, one thing stands out. Investing in nuclear power, particularly fusion nuclear power, represents a commitment to our energy intensive society and a rejection of transformative energy conservation and social reorganization. This is a high tech version of business as usual and a commitment to maintaining current power dynamics at all costs, even though our current infrastructure is not sustainable.