A large European nuclear fusion project is being delayed. Meanwhile, private companies are trying to build the first fusion reactors in 10 to 20 years. Can their promises be trusted?
Experiments at the National Ignition Facility in the USA in December 2022 attracted a lot of attention. These experiments triggered a lot of movement among startups.
Damien Jemison / Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Since the beginning of July it has been clear: The nuclear fusion initiative supported by 33 countries will not contribute any CO2-free electricity to the fight against the climate crisis by the middle of the century. serious deficiencies For important components, the commissioning of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or Iter for short, in Cadarache in southern France will again be significantly delayed.
According to the new schedule, more energy will be produced than is needed to heat the plasma, i.e. the particle cloud in the reactor, for the first time in 2039. However, Iter is only a test facility that is not designed to feed electricity into the grid. That would only be possible with a subsequent reactor called Demo.
Private companies say that there is not that much time available. Around 45 startups worldwide have now committed themselves to the goal of building the first nuclear fusion reactors in the 2030s or 2040s at the latest, fusing hydrogen particles in a controlled manner and generating enormous amounts of energy in the process – just like in the sun.
Some of these companies, like the ITER project, are using extremely strong magnets to confine a plasma that is several million degrees hot. Others are pursuing the alternative method of bombarding hydrogen globules with intense laser beams, which has recently been celebrated worldwide after setting records for energy yield.
Because more and more electricity is needed, nuclear fusion also has a chance
The business case of these fusion startups is simple: humanity’s need for electricity is growing. It is uncertain whether the expansion of renewable energy sources can keep up with this and whether electricity from photovoltaics, wind and biomass can really be available at any time of day or year.
“Renewable energy plus electricity and green hydrogen from nuclear fusion – in my opinion, that would be the best mix for a truly sustainable energy supply,” says the German-American tech entrepreneur and billionaire Frank LaukienHe is the CEO of Bruker, a manufacturer of high-tech equipment, and the initiator of Gauss Fusion based in Hanau, Hesse. The company boldly presents itself as a “greentech” company because fusion produces neither CO2 nor long-lasting nuclear waste and the material and space requirements are significantly lower than with green electricity.
Gauss Fusion, founded by five European companies, aims to have its first large reactor, called Gauss Giga, in operation by 2045 at the latest. Since February, the company has been looking for Cooperation with the Technical University of Munich in six EU countries for suitable locations.
According to new figures from the Fusion Industry Association at the end of July In 2023, around 900 million dollars flowed into nuclear fusion companies worldwide, half from private investors and half from government research funding. In total, these companies have received 7.1 billion dollars for their mission so far.
A good half of the startups are based in the USA. But Europe also has a lot to offer, for example Proxima FusionThe company, which was only founded in May 2023, is a spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), which is one of the world leaders in fusion research. young team wants to develop a demonstration reactor for the Munich site, which is to go into operation as early as the 2030s. Recently, Proxima Fusion in the field of magnet technology with the Paul-Scherrer-Institut in Villingen in Switzerland.
Proxima Fusion and Gauss Fusion both rely on an advanced reactor concept called a stellarator. The most important difference to the traditional, so-called tokamak design is the shape of the heart chamber of the facility. There, magnetic forces keep the fusion plasma, which is millions of degrees hot, in check, away from the outer walls.
Will the ventricle look like a bagel?
In the tokamak, this heart chamber is symmetrically shaped like a hollow bagel, whereas in the stellarator it is twisted in a complicated way. According to the companies, the more complex design allows a reactor to operate more continuously. In addition, the power required to create the confining magnetic field is significantly lower.
The Max Planck Institute has been operating a scientific experimental stellarator in Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since 2016. Proxima Fusion can build on this because of the scientific involvement of team members. Gauss Fusion also benefits from this because Bruker is a supplier of components.
The employees of the Greifswald Stellarator celebrated in early 2023 that they had produced a plasma maintained for eight minutes The next target is thirty minutes. This also reflects how much still needs to be done before the reactor can operate normally around the clock.
The problem with tritium
Another major technical hurdle that still needs to be overcome for nuclear fusion in general is securing a supply of tritium fuel. Tritium is a heavy isotope of hydrogen. Together with the lighter deuterium, another isotope of hydrogen, it is absolutely necessary for fusion.
Deuterium can be produced from water. The extraction of tritium is more difficult. The isotope is very rare in nature. It is therefore to be bred from lithium in the walls of the reactor chamber. But the process has so far only been successful in the laboratory. Here, Gauss Fusion is relying on the fact that two of the five high-tech companies involved already have experience with tritium technology.
One of the pioneers of the other option, so-called laser fusion, is the company Focused Energywhich is investing heavily in Darmstadt, Hesse. The so-called Target Lab is currently being expanded there. Targets are pin-sized beads filled with around two to three grams of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium.
According to the company, the energy content of a single bead is roughly equivalent to that of a fully charged battery of a Tesla Model S with a range of around 600 kilometers. These beads are fired at during laser fusion to trigger the fusion of the hydrogen particles. The Target Lab will also test how this process should take place a thousand times per second and how it can be ensured that the laser always reliably hits its target.
The new facility in Darmstadt is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024. At the same time, the company is moving its American headquarters from Texas to California to be closer to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore. An important breakthrough in laser fusion was achieved there in December 2022, when more energy was generated in a test setup for the first time than was supplied by the laser.
At the National Ignition Facility, laser light is directed into a cavity and converted into X-rays. These then compress the fuel-filled globule until a high-temperature, high-pressure plasma is created inside (undated photo at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, USA).
John Jett and Jake Long / Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Focused Energy plans to open a new laser laboratory in California in 2025. Markus Roth, physicist and company boss, aims to put the first laser fusion power plant into operation as early as the 2030s – Germany is also a possible location for this.
In contrast, the Munich-based company Marvel Fusion announced that it will largely relocate its research activities to the USA. The company also relies on laser fusion and now wants to work mainly with Colorado State University cooperateto build a so-called short-pulse laser facility, which is expected to cost 150 million dollars.
NZZ Planet A
However, Marvel Fusion’s technical approach of using comparatively low pressure and a fuel other than deuterium and tritium is highly controversial. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics accuse Marvel Fusionof pursuing plans that partially violated basic physical laws. The company denies the allegations and emphasizes that all concepts have been subjected to rigorous testing.
All companies that want to win the race to build the first fusion power plant still have huge hurdles to overcome. The large influx of private and state money is giving nuclear fusion start-ups a further boost. But success is anything but guaranteed. Even big supporters of the new technology strongly advise against including nuclear fusion in energy transition strategies.
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