Nuclear fusion may be the only energy source that can save humankind from climate change. General Fusion is a British Columbia company that is working on an unlimited supply of green energy. “Fusion powers the sun, and harnessing fusion here on earth would transform the world’s energy supply. Fusion fuel is abundant and fusion is clean, resulting in no pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. Fusion is also safe: the process cannot runaway and produces no long-lived radioactive waste.”
General Fusion’s Magnetized Target Fusion system uses a sphere, filled with molten lead-lithium that is pumped to form a vortex. On each pulse, magnetically-confined plasma is injected into the vortex. Around the sphere, an array of pistons impact and drive a pressure wave into the center of the sphere, compressing the plasma to fusion conditions.
A lot of the environmental costs of solar depend on how the panels and batteries are produced, transported and disposed of… and most importantly how the energy is stored. As renewable energy grows, storage will become a greater problem. In general, we would be better off producing energy like the sun (fusion) than trying to capture the sun’s energy. http://news.stanford.edu/…/store-electric-grid-030513.html
One of my main concerns with solar is the cost to the environment if they are not put on already existing impervious surfaces. Solar panel farms have many negative impacts on plants and wildlife, not to mention, robbing the Earth’s surface of the energy being harvested by the panels.
Nuclear fusion offers the most hope at rectifying human induced climate change. Nuclear fusion is how the sun works.
In a press release, Lockheed Martin states a breakthrough:
The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] Skunk Works® team is working on a new compact fusion reactor (CFR) that can be developed and deployed in as little as ten years. Currently, there are several patents pending that cover their approach.
While fusion itself is not new, the Skunk Works has built on more than 60 years of fusion research and investment to develop an approach that offers a significant reduction in size compared to mainstream efforts.
“Our compact fusion concept combines several alternative magnetic confinement approaches, taking the best parts of each, and offers a 90 percent size reduction over previous concepts,” said Tom McGuire, compact fusion lead for the Skunk Works’ Revolutionary Technology Programs. “The smaller size will allow us to design, build and test the CFR in less than a year.”
After completing several of these design-build-test cycles, the team anticipates being able to produce a prototype in five years. As they gain confidence and progress technically with each experiment, they will also be searching for partners to help further the technology.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 113,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s net sales for 2013 were $45.4 billion.
“We can make a big difference on the energy front,” lead researcher McGuire said, noting Lockheed’s 60 years of research on nuclear fusion as a potential energy source that is safer and more efficient than current reactors based on nuclear fission.
