Nuclear power!
Does it make you squirm?
The fact is, depending on where you are, the power supplied to your apartment may come
from a nuclear reactor, even if you don't want one to be sited behind your house!
However, scientists continue to look for ways to make nuclear reactors better, and a breakthrough
by a company working on nuclear fusion promises to change everything!
What is nuclear fusion, what company has made the breakthrough, and how does the breakthrough
affect you as a person?
The richest 20 percent of the world population uses 55 percent
of the primary energy, and their per capita consumption is almost five times as
much as the rest of the world's population.
Where does all that energy come from?
The world generated a record 10 percent of its
electricity from wind and solar in 2021, 59 percent from coal.
Around 10 percent of the world's electricity last year came from about
440 nuclear power reactors.
About 55 more reactors are under construction, equivalent
to approximately 15 percent of existing capacity!
However, with the breakthrough by scientists, the share of nuclear energy may just be
about to shoot up!
How does this new nuclear technology work?
Before we go into that, it is essential to understand how current
nuclear reactors work!
On paper, the process is simple.
Nuclear power plants heat water to produce steam.
The steam is used to spin large turbines that generate electricity.
A nuclear reactor is driven by the splitting of atoms, a process
called fission, where a particle called a 'neutron' is fired at an atom, which then
fissions into two smaller atoms and some additional neutrons.
Some of the released neutrons then hit other atoms, causing them
to fission too and release more neutrons.
This is called a chain reaction.
The fissioning of atoms in the chain reaction also releases a large amount of energy as
heat.
The generated heat is removed from the reactor by a circulating fluid, typically
water.
This heat can then be used to create steam, which drives turbines for electricity
production.
In order to ensure the nuclear reaction takes place at the right speed, reactors have
systems that accelerate, slow, or shut down the nuclear reaction and the heat it
produces.
This is normally done with control rods, typically made out of neutron-
absorbing materials such as silver and boron.
Nuclear reactors come in many different shapes and sizes – some use water to cool
their cores, whilst others use gas or liquid metal.
The most common power reactor types use water, with more than 90% of the world's
reactors being water-based.
Nuclear reactors can run for 24 hours a day for many months, if not years, without
interruption, whatever the weather or season.
Additionally, most nuclear reactors can operate for very long periods of time – over
60 years in many cases.
For instance, in 2019, units 3 and 4 at the Turkey Point plant
in Florida became the first reactors to be licensed for 80 years of operation.
The most commonly used fuel in nuclear reactors is uranium.
Uranium is abundant and can be found in many places around the world,
including in the oceans.
Other fuels, such as plutonium and thorium, can also be
used.
Most of today's reactors contain several hundred fuel assemblies, each having
thousands of small uranium fuel pellets.
A single pellet contains as much energy as one
tonne of coal!
A typical reactor requires about 27 tonnes of fresh fuel each year.
In comparison, a coal power station of a similar
size would consume more than two-and-a- half million tonnes of coal to produce as
much electricity!
However, nuclear fission reactors have their disadvantages.
For example, the radiation emitted during the fission reaction is harmful
to humans and animals.
The workers exposed while working at nuclear power plants
are at significant risk of radiation poisoning, cancer, and other diseases associated
with radiation.
High vulnerability is a potential risk that is involved in nuclear
power plants.
The enormous energy produced in a fission reaction can be utilized to create
nuclear weapons.
Any minor accident at a nuclear plant can cause colossal damage, affecting
the lives of millions!
The waste released from the nuclear power plant is highly
radioactive and harmful to all living beings.
There are high chances of water contamination from these plants, which can
cause serious diseases and death in living beings.
This is where a company known as First Light comes in!
First Light Fusion is into nuclear power but uses a different process.
The British outfit claims it has achieved nuclear fusion with an approach that could
provide cheap, clean power.
First Light is a spin-out from the University of Oxford and
has used a technique called projectile fusion to accelerate fuel at 200 times the speed
of sound!
First Light's technique has been applauded by the UK's Business & Energy Secretary,
Kwasi Kwarteng, who described it as having the potential to revolutionize power
production!
The technique is inspired by pistol shrimp, which have an oversized claw that can 'click'
shut at very high speed.
Projectile fusion is more uncomplicated, more energy-efficient,
and cheaper than traditional approaches.
Dr. Nick Hawker, co-founder and CEO of First Light Fusion said their approach to fusion
is all about simplicity.
He believes that due to its simplicity, projectile fusion is the fastest
path to commercially viable power generation from fusion.
Traditional approaches tend to involve inertial fusion, in which a small amount of fuel is
injected by a laser and sparked to make it burn.
First Light set out to develop a new method to achieve nuclear fusion that is simpler,
more energy efficient, and has a lower physics risk.
Instead of using complex and expensive lasers or magnets, projectile
fusion uses a high velocity projectile.
First Light uses a large two-stage hyper-velocity gas gun to launch a 100 g projectile at
a pellet containing the fusion fuel in the form of tritium and deuterium.
The projectile reaches dizzying speeds of 14,540 miles per
hour or 23,399 km per hour before hitting the target.
That is about 20 times the speed of sound!
As the fuel is hit by the projectile, it accelerates to over 156,586 miles per hour or
252,000 km per hour.
This is about 200 times the speed of sound, creating a pulse of
fusion energy.
First Light boasts the fuel becomes the fastest moving object on Earth at
that point!
In terms of how this would apply to a large-scale nuclear power plant, the target
containing the nuclear fusion fuel would be dropped into the reaction chamber before
the projectile is launched downwards through the same entrance.
The projectile would then catch up with the target, impacting it at just the right moment,
creating a pulse of fusion energy.
The energy is absorbed by lithium flowing inside the
chamber, heating it up.
The flowing liquid protects the chamber from the vast energy
release, sidestepping some of the most challenging engineering issues in other
approaches to fusion.
Finally, a heat exchanger transfers the heat of the lithium to
water, generating steam that turns a turbine and produces electricity.
First Light's goal is to develop nuclear power plants in which the process would be
repeated every 30 seconds.
And despite being just a few millimeters in size, the
company claims each target pellet could generate enough energy to power the average
UK home for more than two years!
Compared to inertial fusion techniques, which require expensive lasers and magnets,
First Light's equipment is simple and dirt cheap!
According to the firm, it has spent less than 45 million pounds to achieve fusion.
Dr. Hawker explained his team aims for simplicity in the power plant engineering and
wants to make the fusion process itself as simple as possible.
The key technology is the target designs.
There is no doubt they are complex, but the physics is simpler than
other fusion approaches because it can be understood and simulated accurately!
With the preliminary results, First Light has proven its radically new method for inertial
fusion works.
But, more importantly, the company has established its design process.
First Light even claims the design used to achieve this result is already months out
of date as they have been refining the process!
Dr. Hawker said, "As soon as we reach the maximum with one idea, we invent the next,
and that incredible journey of discovery is what is so exciting."
Having achieved nuclear fusion, the team is now planning a 'gain' experiment, in which
more energy is put out than in.
But the firm believes it won't be long before it has a
working nuclear fusion plant!
First Light is working towards a pilot plant producing about 150 megawatts of electricity
and costing less than 1 billion dollars.
Let's hear what you think of First Light's nuclear fusion technique in the comment
section!