#NUCLEAR FUSION VS FISSION COST SERIES#
#NUCLEAR FUSION VS FISSION COST CRACK#

#NUCLEAR FUSION VS FISSION COST SERIES#

The Financial Times reported that a series of scientific breakthroughs and a rush of private investment are raising hopes that it could yet play a meaningful role in cutting global emissions before 2050. However, it is the activity in the private sector in both the US and the UK that has provoked the most excitement.

#NUCLEAR FUSION VS FISSION COST CRACK#

Indeed, an executive at the Japanese start-up Kyoto Fusioneering told The Telegraph newspaper that both the US and UK are locked into a two-horse race to crack nuclear fusion and either of them could yet be the first to develop commercial reactors. The US is also well on the way towards developing a commercial nuclear fusion facility. Its most recent report states that 93% of companies surveyed in 2022 believe that fusion electricity will be on the grid in the 2030s. In the 12 months to the end of June, the Fusion Industry Association estimates that private fusion companies raised $2.83bn in investment, mainly in the US but also in the UK. With over twenty fusion start-ups globally and increasing collaboration between the private and public sectors, investors are awakening to this opportunity.” Melanie Windridge, a plasma physicist who runs the consultancy Fusion Energy Insights told the Financial Times that roughly 1kg of fusion fuel has, “the potential to produce as much energy as ten million kilogrammes of fossil fuels.”Ĭhris Kelsall, CEO of Tokamak Energy, adds: “We are in a race against time to phase out the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and aim to deliver fusion as a clean, sustainable, low cost and globally available energy source. The interaction between the two is similar to the process that powers the stars in the universe. Deuterium is widely available as it can be found in seawater, while tritium can be extracted from lithium. The hydrogen isotopes most used in fusion are deuterium and tritium. But while nuclear fission may be less damaging to the environment than fossil fuels, pollution in the form of radioactive waste is a major drawback.īy contrast, nuclear fusion happens when light atoms are smashed together to create heavier atoms creating a huge burst of energy. Nuclear reactors use this energy to create steam, which in turn powers a turbine to produce electricity.

Nuclear fission creates power by splitting atoms of radioactive elements like uranium with neutrons releasing an enormous amount of energy.

Nuclear fusion, rather than nuclear fission, is seen as the key to revamping the UK’s moribund nuclear power industry, and the differences between the two nuclear technologies are profound. The question remains, then, as to whether this project can revitalise nuclear power in the UK. In October, the UK picked the Midlands as the site to host its STEP fusion demonstration plant, a $23.9bn fusion power station at the West Burton power station, currently the site of a coal-fired power plant in Nottinghamshire.

Nuclear fusion vs fission cost