A Tokyo-based company called Helical Fusion is set to launch a first-of-its-kind steady-state nuclear fusion reactor, Interesting Engineering reported. It would be considered a "pilot" reactor, but if successful, the project could have major implications for the future of clean energy.
Existing nuclear reactors work by creating energy using fission — the nuclear reaction where atoms are split apart. However, scientists have long sought to create a nuclear reactor that harnesses the power of fusion, where two atoms slam together.
A fusion reactor would mimic the same process that powers the sun and could theoretically produce virtually unlimited clean, renewable energy. Fusion also doesn't produce anywhere near the same radioactive byproducts that fission does, making it safer overall.
Assuming that it can secure enough funding, Helical Fusion aims to create just such a reactor.
"We intend to have the world's very first steady-state combination reactor up and creating electrical power within the next 10 years," Helical Fusion CEO Takaya Taguchi told Reuters. "If we run the pilot reactor starting in 2034 for a few years … we could begin constructing a commercial reactor and have it functional in around 2040 at the earliest."
Although scientists have achieved nuclear fusion, they have struggled so far to produce it without expending more energy than they manage to create, making previous attempts commercially nonviable as well as unsustainable.
However, scientists around the world are making advancements in the nuclear field all the time, leaving the impression that a commercial nuclear fusion reactor is inevitable.
Recently, the Japanese and American governments joined forces to combine each country's scientific progress on harnessing nuclear fusion. Chinese scientists have also reportedly made some major advancements recently. A California-based startup is also working on a process that it hopes could help to make fusion commercially viable.
In the meantime, nuclear fission isn't going anywhere, either. The classic method of producing nuclear energy is already safer than many people believe, and the government just allocated $2 billion for a nuclear fission power plant in Michigan.
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