How nuclear fusion reactors like this one could change the world


Daniel Bardsley
  • English
  • Arabic

Inside a small Nasa-style control room in Oxford in the UK, a group of scientists are trying to solve a puzzle that could answer the world's energy needs forever.

They seek the key to unlocking fusion energy — cleaner, more efficient and less risky than nuclear fission, which the world's nuclear plants currently use.

Their work, at a time of turmoil in the energy markets and spiralling household bills, has never been more crucial.

Just last week, Tokamak Energy, based in Oxford, and the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority struck a five-year deal to develop a brand new fusion reactor.

There’s a clean power gap. If we’re going to fill it with fossil fuels, we won’t hit our net-zero targets. Fusion is one of the solutions for filling that gap
Dr Nick Hawker,
First Light Fusion

“There’s a clean power gap,” says Dr Nick Hawker, chief executive and co-founder of First Light Fusion, also based in Oxford, which has raised £77 million ($86m) from investors to scale up its research.

“If we’re going to fill it with fossil fuels, we won’t hit our net-zero targets. Fusion is one of the solutions for filling that gap.”

The National visited First Light Fusion's research lab for a closer look.

How it works and why it matters

In simple terms, scientists want to recreate the reaction that powers the Sun.

On Earth, this involves harnessing a huge amount of electrical power and discharging it to create an electromagnetic force inside a hi-tech machine. This, in turn, accelerates a small disc to speeds of up to 20km-per-second.

That would make it one of the fastest-moving objects. But it doesn't go far. It slams into a target just 10mm in front of it.

In the target there is liquid fuel, and when it is struck it creates such pressure and temperature that nuclear fusion can happen.

The challenge is to tip the balance so that you create more energy than it cost you to start the process. And no one has managed it yet.

First Light Fusion wants to change that.

Much less problematic than nuclear fission when it comes to waste production and worst-case scenario risks, fusion could offer potentially limitless supplies of clean energy.

First Light Fusion, which was spun out of the University of Oxford in 2011, achieved fusion in a result announced this year that was verified by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Dr Hawker said nuclear fusion could “make a massive contribution” to the world’s energy needs — but not immediately, he admits.

Dr Nick Hawker, First Light Fusion's co-founder and chief executive, in front of M3 (Machine 3) at the company's headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Daniel Bardsley / The National
Dr Nick Hawker, First Light Fusion's co-founder and chief executive, in front of M3 (Machine 3) at the company's headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Daniel Bardsley / The National

There is, he says, “an urgent need to be decarbonising”, which means huge investments are needed in renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power now.

However, the world’s energy demands are continuing to increase, with the US Energy Information Administration expecting them to have risen by 47 per cent by 2050.

The machine

Much of the work at the company’s headquarters in Oxford Industrial Park, north of the city, centres on M3 (Machine 3), a £3.6 million (Dh14.2m) unit described as one of the largest pulsed power facilities in the world.

Radiating out from the centre of M3 are six spokes made up of a total of 192 capacitors, devices that store electrical charge.

It is used for the high-speed firing process outlined above.

If operating industrially, lithium flowing inside the target chamber would be heated up by the energy released by fusion. Through a heat exchanger, it would turn water to steam, which would generate electricity through a turbine.

First Light Fusion says that in a power plant, this process would take place twice a minute, with each target producing enough electricity to power a home for about two years.

This illustration provided by California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory depicts a target pellet inside a hohlraum capsule with laser beams entering through openings on either end. The beams compress and heat the target to the necessary conditions for nuclear fusion to occur. Photo: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via AP
This illustration provided by California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory depicts a target pellet inside a hohlraum capsule with laser beams entering through openings on either end. The beams compress and heat the target to the necessary conditions for nuclear fusion to occur. Photo: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via AP

Scaling up

First Light Fusion now aims to scale up the technology.

To that end, plans are in place to build, at another location, a much larger machine called M4, which will be 80 metres in diameter.

It will also have 40 times as many capacitors as its smaller sibling and should be capable of sending the projectile at much higher speeds. The aim is to have this up and running in the second half of the decade.

Meanwhile, there are, in Dr Hawker’s words, “30 to 40" other companies working on fusion using a variety of other approaches to heat the fuel. These include creating electric fields or using a combination of compression and heating.

Given that it does not produce greenhouse gases or long-lasting radioactive waste, nuclear fusion may seem like the ideal answer to the world’s energy needs.

Experts argue that greenhouse gases are already too prevalent and that waiting to develop nuclear fusion technology would take too long. AP
Experts argue that greenhouse gases are already too prevalent and that waiting to develop nuclear fusion technology would take too long. AP

'For solving climate change, it's irrelevant'

But not everyone is convinced.

Prof Niklas Höhne, founder of the NewClimate Institute in Germany, says “it will come online far too late and will be far too expensive” to contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions cuts that he says are essential now.

“For solving the climate crisis, it’s irrelevant,” he says. “To make up this large difference, fusion is simply expensive and doesn’t work yet.”

Costs of wind and solar power will probably continue to fall, he says, while fusion’s costs may not plummet as fast.

“Just look at nuclear fission, the current nuclear power,” Prof Höhne said. “In the last 30 years, the costs have not declined and are much, much higher than wind and solar.

“Why put effort in a future technology when we don’t know whether it will work, when we know wind and solar does work?”

Adding to the energy mix

While accepting that the jury is still out on fusion’s commercial viability, other energy analysts think it may make an important contribution.

“If it can be made to work on a commercial scale, then fusion clearly would have a role to play. We don’t know to what extent it can work,” says Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, part of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“We certainly need to do more research and development and investigations with fusion, because if it does work, it promises potentially lots of cheap, clean energy in the future.”

Dr Hawker is keen to emphasise that fusion is not a substitute for immediate investments in wind and solar power.

But he does think that in the second half of this century, a time when many experts suggest the world will need to achieve negative emissions, fusion could come into its own.

The lower risk profile (he says a complete plant meltdown would create only one ten thousandth of the hazard of the Fukushima disaster) means that fusion is likely to be cheaper than nuclear fission and could be competitive with other technologies.

He envisages 100 megawatt (MW) plants that each cost less than $1 billion to build and have a levelised cost of electricity ― a measure that includes the plant’s lifetime costs ― of about $45 per megawatt hour.

Ultimately, many forms of nuclear fusion power could make it through research and development to become viable commercially. Dr Hawker sees First Light Fusion as being among the handful of front-runners.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
ENGLAND SQUAD

For first two Test in India Joe Root (captain), Jofra Archer, Moeen Ali, James Anderson , Dom Bess, Stuart Broad , Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes. Reserves James Bracey, Mason Crane, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Robinson, Amar Virdi.

Need to know

When: October 17 until November 10

Cost: Entry is free but some events require prior registration

Where: Various locations including National Theatre (Abu Dhabi), Abu Dhabi Cultural Center, Zayed University Promenade, Beach Rotana (Abu Dhabi), Vox Cinemas at Yas Mall, Sharjah Youth Center

What: The Korea Festival will feature art exhibitions, a B-boy dance show, a mini K-pop concert, traditional dance and music performances, food tastings, a beauty seminar, and more.

For more information: www.koreafestivaluae.com

WOMAN AND CHILD

Director: Saeed Roustaee

Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi

Rating: 4/5

The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPowertrain%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle%20electric%20motor%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E201hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E310Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBattery%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E53kWh%20lithium-ion%20battery%20pack%20(GS%20base%20model)%3B%2070kWh%20battery%20pack%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETouring%20range%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E350km%20(GS)%3B%20480km%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh129%2C900%20(GS)%3B%20Dh149%2C000%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKinetic%207%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rick%20Parish%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Clean%20cooking%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Self-funded%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The biog

Favourite book: You Are the Placebo – Making your mind matter, by Dr Joe Dispenza

Hobby: Running and watching Welsh rugby

Travel destination: Cyprus in the summer

Life goals: To be an aspirational and passionate University educator, enjoy life, be healthy and be the best dad possible.

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

Two products to make at home

Toilet cleaner

1 cup baking soda 

1 cup castile soap

10-20 drops of lemon essential oil (or another oil of your choice) 

Method:

1. Mix the baking soda and castile soap until you get a nice consistency.

2. Add the essential oil to the mix.

Air Freshener

100ml water 

5 drops of the essential oil of your choice (note: lavender is a nice one for this) 

Method:

1. Add water and oil to spray bottle to store.

2. Shake well before use. 

UK's plans to cut net migration

Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.

Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.

But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.

Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.

Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.

The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.

Fund-raising tips for start-ups

Develop an innovative business concept

Have the ability to differentiate yourself from competitors

Put in place a business continuity plan after Covid-19

Prepare for the worst-case scenario (further lockdowns, long wait for a vaccine, etc.) 

Have enough cash to stay afloat for the next 12 to 18 months

Be creative and innovative to reduce expenses

Be prepared to use Covid-19 as an opportunity for your business

* Tips from Jassim Al Marzooqi and Walid Hanna

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Match info:

Wolves 1
Boly (57')

Manchester City 1
Laporte (69')

Updated: June 20, 2023, 8:15 AM`