Ritika Janiya
If it sounds like science fiction, then fusion power truly is the stuff of science fiction that can really change our lives. Though we may not see working fusion power plants within the next 30 years, this research has already made some amazing advances in technology that can help in things like cancer treatment or even making better batteries for electric cars.
In March 1776, James Watt installed his first steam engine at Bloomfield Colliery in the West Midlands. It was the age of machines, and such a mechanical wonder amazed all people; it was originally constructed to pump water from mines. How far did anybody realize that this would initiate an Industrial Revolution, changing the way industries worked and the world altogether?.
Fast forward to the present day, and researchers into fusion energy think we’re on the brink of another huge change. Lu-Fong Chua, chief strategy officer at TAE Power Solutions, likens this exciting development to Watt’s steam engine. Fusion is what drives stars, and if we could harness it right here on Earth, it would open up for us an abundance of clean energy to power a shift away from fossil fuels.
Although full-scale fusion power plants could only go into full production in the 2040s, what is currently being worked on is making a big difference. For example, in 2022, the UK government announced that the site for the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production would be based in Nottinghamshire. This plant is going to help in testing fusion energy and is targeted to begin the supply of electricity by the 2040s.
But fusion is not all there is in energy. Fusion research is driving other exciting new technologies. For experiments, TAE Power Solutions, a spin-off from TAE Technologies, needed a mechanism that could store vast amounts of energy. That challenge in turn pushed them to develop new kinds of batteries that would go on to be used in the next generation of electric vehicles.
“We don’t see this as a side project. We see it as something highly valuable that may have a breakthrough of its own, independent of fusion,” Chua said. That just goes to say how technology developed for fusion research can be useful for way more areas than simple generation of power.
In the UK, the Atomic Energy Authority created a Fusion Cluster at Culham in Oxfordshire to help grow the fusion industry. The cluster has increased from a handful of firms when established in 2021 to more than 200 now. While it is hoped that in the long term, a prototype commercial fusion power plant will be developed in the 2040s, finding ways to exploit spin-off technologies is becoming a significant task on its own.
But the Fusion Cluster shows that fusion research can come up with useful technologies well before we get working fusion power plants, as Valerie Jamieson explains, the Development Manager at the Center. That’s a powerful attractant for investment. An early founder and CEO of Shine Technologies, Greg Piefer, realized very early on that the development of fusion power would be a long journey. So he started thinking how to monetize the technology before the power plants are ready.
This research will make a big difference in four main areas of fusion:
- Propulsion: Fusion reactors are home to the hottest gases. Maintaining this requires very strong magnets. Tokamak Energy, part of the Fusion Cluster, has developed new high-temperature superconducting magnets that are much stronger than those older ones. Such magnets have the potential to open completely new markets and enhance existing ones. For example, they are being used in the development of magnetohydrodynamic drives. MHD drives use magnetic forces to propel electrically charged fluids and could be used in ships. Back in the 1990s, Mitsubishi built an MHD ship, but it went only 15 km/h. With stronger magnets, new MHD drives could be far more powerful.
- Medical Applications: Fusion research is also helping in medicine. TAE Technologies is working on ways fusion can be used to treat cancer. They found the reaction of boron atoms with neutrons could destroy cancer cells. To this day, this process requires a large nuclear reactor, not at all feasible. Now, TAE’s compact particle accelerators have the potential to create focused neutron beams for medical use in better treatments of cancer.
- New Materials: Fusion energy research has produced new materials able to bear extreme working conditions; these could find use in aerospace and other manufacturing industries.
- Energy Storage: Fusion research has also encouraged innovations in energy storage. Advancements in batteries and energy storage technologies can significantly influence the way we deal with and save energy in our daily lives.
In summary, although we will not see the fusion power plant probably for a few decades, already research behind it has huge impacts. Work done now on better EV batteries, through new hospital treatments to innovative propulsion systems, shapes a brighter, more advanced future. So, keep an eye on fusion energy—it is not some sort of faraway dream but something already changing our world today!
