Problems of the development of fusion energy

The dream of energy abundance for more than half a century excites the consciousness of not only specialists, but also ordinary people. Every year, energy needs are growing, while the cost of fossil resources is also growing. And the time is drawing near when non-renewable resources run out. What then will mankind do, spoiled by the availability of electrical, thermal and other types of energy resources?

About two centuries ago, when the first wells opened access to the underground storerooms of hydrocarbon fuel, few people thought how quickly they could dry out. But the rampant use of fossil fuels, in addition to meeting human energy needs, led to monstrous environmental pollution and put humanity on the brink of survival. It is time to urgently seek a replacement for fossil raw materials, to use renewable energy sources.

But you just have to raise your head, look at the Sun, and here it is, an inexhaustible source of energy. This is the energy of thermonuclear fusion of light nuclei. After the first tests of hydrogen bombs, the euphoria of omnipotence reigned among physicists: one effort, and thermonuclear reactions would be put at the service of mankind. But more than half a century has passed, and the problem of controlled synthesis has not yet been solved.

What hinders the realization of the dream of several generations of physicists? After all, fusion reactions are the most common processes in the Universe that have been successfully operating in the bowels of stars for more than ten billion years.

But to reproduce on Earth the processes that occur inside the stars, it turned out to be extremely difficult. A temperature of a hundred million degrees and a pressure of hundreds of thousands of atmospheres - it is in these conditions that hydrogen nuclei can be brought together so that nuclear forces begin to act and energy is released.

Decades of hard work and billions of dollars spent have come close to building experimental facilities in which it will be possible to light the small suns.

But a huge number of technical problems are awaiting solution. It is not enough to ignite and stably maintain the burning of a thermonuclear flame. After all, it is still necessary to divert energy from plasma with a temperature of tens of millions of degrees. What coolant can receive and transmit such an amount of energy?

And there are still many such questions. Until the moment when the hot steam spins the generator’s turbine and the current generated by the thermonuclear station flows through the wires, more than a decade will pass. Some skeptics predict that the energy of fusion of light nuclei can never be used. And financial resources and intellectual resources should be directed to the development of other energy sources: geothermal, tidal wave or wind energy.

In addition to technical difficulties, the safety of fusion reactors should not be neglected. Despite its attractiveness and the use of relatively safe raw materials in the form of deuterium and lithium, the process of nuclear fusion itself is accompanied by the release of energy in the form of hard radiation.

The absorption of radiation can cause induced radiation in the structural materials of the reactor. Reactors will be built with a large unit capacity, so in emergency cases the instantaneous release of even ordinary thermal energy can have disastrous consequences.

But all these problems of physics and engineer are well aware. One thing is missing: an even realization of the inevitability of the oncoming energy “hunger” and the goodwill of the governments of leading industrial countries.

Huge amounts of money were spent and are being spent on the creation of new types of weapons.If these funds were aimed at solving the energy problems of mankind, it is possible that already today we used thermonuclear fusion energy.