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| Tue, 2nd Jun 2020 17:14:00 |
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Bill Gates And Big Oil Are Chasing The Nuclear Fusion Dream |
The decades-old debate over nuclear fusion vs. fission is on the edge of a breakthrough as startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems wins over Bill Gates and other backers. Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor is one of them. Commonwealth Fuel Systems has a system powered by high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets that are key to a push to get a commercial fusion energy system operating by the early 2030s — years earlier than several major fusion projects around the world. CFS, a US-based startup that came from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is developing its HTS technology to deliver what it claims will commercialize nuclear fusion power. That comes with unlimited zero-carbon energy, and a much more reliable renewable energy source for power plants than intermittent wind and solar.
CFS' efforts come from a joint project with MIT that by 2025 aims to become the first fusion reactor to show "net energy gain" by producing more energy than it consumes. It will be able to generate 50 to 100 megawatts thermal that could be harnessed to produce power in a conventional steam cycle.
Nuclear fusion has been seen as the answer to diminishing support for nuclear power overall since Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. That crisis was followed in 2013 when the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California was shut down
after replacement steam generators failed; and has so far remained out of commission. Fusion has been championed as the solution as it creates less radioactive material than fission, and has a nearly unlimited fuel supply.
Equinor sees CFS as a good fit for its zero-carbon investment portfolio that already includes offshore wind and solar. The Norwegian company was part of an $84 million funding round for the startup that joined an existing group of investors including oil and gas company Eni and Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Nuclear fusion has always faced the same challenge that hydrogen has endured as an alternative energy. The standing joke is that "fusion is always 40 years away." Nuclear power advocates may be seeing a sign of hope in hydrogen — with the potential of "green hydrogen" coming to be, fueling stations becoming competitive to gas pumps, and applications of the fuel coming to energy storage and commercial vehicles of all types.
Nuclear has the edge of being taken quite seriously in markets around the world such as France, where the county gets about 75 percent of its electric power from nuclear energy. Fusion does offer a consistent, steady energy source — versus wind and solar facing intermittent weather conditions.
Read original full article
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