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| Why is Israel's plan to fit a fusion reactor in a container considered a 'game changer' in the energy industry |
At first glance, it looks like an ordinary warehouse, but upon entering the building in the city of Hod Hasharon, it is clear that it is an energy project in the Middle East that is trying to make the impossible possible.
Researchers at NT Tau are part of a high-profile group of 35 private startups trying to build a private fusion reactor.
Nuclear fusion, or the fusion of hydrogen atoms to create energy, is the source of energy in the Sun and other planets in the universe. If this process is tested on land, it can ensure cheap, abundant, and environment-friendly power generation.
Late last year, researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US state of California made a major breakthrough.
Scientists experimented with fusion in a controlled environment to produce more energy from the reaction than could be supplied by lasers.
Despite this success, there are still many challenges in generating household electricity with a fusion reactor.
Researchers are trying to find solutions to such problems in different ways. One way to achieve fusion is to heat hydrogen isotopes to hundreds of millions of degrees until they have enough energy to break apart and form plasma.
This plasma can then be confined in a magnetic field, a process known as 'magnetic confinement fusion'.
There are different methods of arranging a magnetic field. In a device called a 'tokamak', the plasma is confined by several magnets that are mounted in a circle. This plasma is then spun through a machine.
At NT Tau, an attempt is being made to combine these two approaches, namely the tokamak and the stellarator.
"Without giving too much away about the project, we can say at this point that NT The Tau uses a combination of existing tokamak technology and stellarator technology.
"We are trying to improve these two technologies so that we can create a new design that will operate at a higher plasma density and help us create a fusion reaction that is currently available," he says. will be more environmentally friendly than any other solution.'
NT-Tau believes that by using high-density plasma, the base of the reactor can be confined and the engineering around it can be simplified.
The company's current goal is to build a modular fusion reactor the size of a typical shipping container. It will be a very small project compared to other fusion projects.
For example, a British government-backed fusion plant is planned on 740 acres that also houses a coal-fired power station.
They want to try to provide electricity through NT-Tau reactors in places where electricity cannot be supplied by grid stations. This can be used to power drinking water treatment plants, in mining processes or to charge electric vehicles.
"These shipping containers can be taken anywhere and are very easy to move anywhere," Goer-Levy says.
Building any type of fusion reactor is very difficult, but building a small and standard reactor is even more difficult.
Despite all these difficulties, NT Tau has attracted the attention of high-profile investors. NT Tau hit the headlines last year when Honda invested in the company, making Honda the first automaker to invest in Fusion Energy. Including funding from Honda, NT Tau received $28 million in funding.
Honda believes that the success of NT Tau's project to build a smaller reactor will help them build test reactors faster.
A press release issued by Honda's director and senior managing officer in February stated that Honda has good expectations for NT Tau's future as the company has advanced fusion energy technology.
Honda believes that fusion energy technology can play an important role in creating an affordable, clean, and sustainable energy source and that this technology will become even more important when electric vehicles become popular. will.'
Investments in fusion projects have been increasing over the past several years. According to a 2022 report by the Fusion Industry Association, fusion companies have so far received $4.7 billion in private funding, in addition to $117 million in government grants.
Some startups say they're optimistic they'll be able to bring the energy project to fruition by the end of the decade.
However, many are cautious about the future of the fusion industry. The Star BuilderArthur Turrell, the author of Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet, says that existing nuclear power plants that break apart atoms, called fission, are currently the most suitable.
"Nuclear fission is currently the safest and most widely used form of energy in the world and is superior to renewable energy sources," he says. You don't need much fuel for it and once it's set up, it doesn't need many people to run it either. Also, it requires a small site to run.
"There have been some reactor accidents in the past and it's understandable why people are worried about it," he says, pointing to the Fukushima and Chornobyl disasters.
The safety certainty of fusion technology draws investors' attention to it. "It's a very safe process," Turrell says. There is no chance of a meltdown in nuclear fusion because it is a different way of generating energy.
"I've visited several such sites and the thing people worry about the most there is falling down the stairs."
Barcha Halaf, a former chief scientist at the Israeli Ministry of Energy, has a cautious opinion. She says that there is still a long way to go and there may be many challenges during this time. It can come in terms of controlling the projects and making them sustainable, which will be important for the continued operation of a small fusion reactor.
Andrew Holland, chief executive of the Fusion Industry Association, is optimistic that a fusion power plant will be built in the coming days.
"Fusion can change the world." It is the best source of energy. Not all companies will succeed in commercializing fusion, but the industry itself is inevitable and game-changing.