Nuclear Fusion Energy: Very Uncertain
Popularized
in the most misguided way by the press as "the artificial replication of
the Sun's operation" to produce clean energy. This message leads
laypeople, including politicians, to believe that the solution to the energy
problem is near.
It is
theoretically impossible to duplicate on Earth or any other planet the process
that only occurs in stars the size of our Sun and therefore with immense
pressure at the center.
We have
known the physics of how to trigger that energy since the 1950s with the first
thermonuclear atomic bomb, precisely called hydrogen bomb, which to achieve
that pressure exploded an atomic bomb inside it.
To achieve
that process in a controlled manner, all the details are known, and for this
reason, the international ITER project was established, the largest machine
under construction in the world comparable to the space station in orbit.
ITER
represents our only hope for the distant future. In short, since we cannot
create the pressure of the Sun, it has been calculated that at least 150
million degrees Celsius are needed to trigger the process instead of the Sun's
15 million. Furthermore, we cannot fuse hydrogen atoms like in the Sun, but two
of its isotopes, deuterium, and tritium. Deuterium is found in the sea, while
tritium needs to be created. ITER foresees that tritium will be self-produced
internally for a power plant to become possible and it will take at least
another ten years to verify this. Then, it will take more decades to build a
prototype that produces reasonable amounts of energy at an acceptable cost, and
from that point on, the design of reproducible power plants, that is, by the
end of the century.
In all the
small and ridiculous experiments praised by the press worldwide, and by over
thirty money-sucking startups, the tritium they use is produced by other means
outside the process and in quantities of fractions of a milligram!
Nuclear Fission Energy: Certain but Dangerous
The
principle of its operation, as always for humanity, stems from the development
of the atomic weapon. The thermal energy used to drive turbines that produce
electricity is mainly obtained from the impact of neutrons generated by the
breaking of the nuclei of certain minerals properly treated, essentially
uranium and plutonium. Fission reactors control this flow of neutrons, thus
regulating the heat generated and therefore the electricity produced.
It is a
very consolidated technology that today sees its fourth generation and above
all the development of small nuclear power plants with powers below 300
Megawatts and that, recently, in micro versions, range from three to a few tens
of megawatts.
Are they
dangerous? Certainly, everything we build has a degree of danger. The collapse
of the Vajont dam in 1963 in Italy destroyed a valley and caused thousands of
deaths. Every year we have millions of deaths on the roads worldwide. Every
vaccination creates problems.
What do I
want to state with this: that once again humanity must decide, between two
possible evils, which is the lesser evil. Do we accept to produce more CO2 and
not install new fission power plants? It seems that, after so many often-useless
debates on alternatives, Europe has decided to include nuclear power plants
among those of the "Green Deal". Between the risk of containing the
GDP and some risk of radiation, the choice of politics, after so much talk,
could not be otherwise!
My books on
the subject
MY BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT
ENERGY, EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW. Energy consumption statistics in the world, electric cars, and
environment. Electric power plants, hydroelectric, coal, oil, gas, nuclear,
geothermal, wind, fusion. https://a.co/d/c14CgaM
ENERGY
AND CLIMATE CHANGE.
Exploring the interplay between energy, civilization, and climate change: a
journey through history and the challenges of the future. https://a.co/d/9vE2i0r
Italian version books
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