NUCLEAR FUSION GREEN REALITY PLAN IN 20 YEARS

[Michael Grove]

   Long considered a pipe dream of low-risk, cheap green

  energy, Nuclear fusion has become a more serious 

  proposition in recent years, with British scientists in

  the running to be the first to get there. Fusion works

  by the merging at extremely high temperatures of the

  nuclei of atoms to form a heavier element, the same

  process that takes place in the Sun. 

  The challenge for scientists on Earth has been to

  produce more energy than they must put in to create

  the reaction. It is not to be confused with nuclear

  fission, where an atom is split sparking a powerful

  chain reaction that emits a large amount of energy,

  which can be utilised if controlled in a nuclear reactor.   

  Boris Johnson is personally invested in the ‘holy grail’

  of fusion, last year declaring British scientists to be

  “on the verge” of success.