SCMP Editorial

Editorial | Fusion is the future for nuclear energy

It is safe and with rapid advances being made in the technology, it could be a way out of our climate change crisis

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Scientists at the Joint European Torus facility in England generated 59 megajoules of energy for five seconds in a recent experiment, enough to power 35,000 homes. Photo: Handout

SCMP Editorial

Published: 4:30am, 15 Feb 2022

Nuclear energy is hot again. In quick succession, scientists from three nuclear-armed countries have announced breakthroughs in nuclear fusion research.

If they live up to the hype, nuclear energy will, despite its once terrible reputation, serve as a significant energy mix in the coming post-coal and oil era of climate change. A team of researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility near central England managed to generate 59 megajoules of energy for five seconds during an experiment in December, with enough energy to power 35,000 homes for a brief period of time.

The experiment, which doubled the record achieved in 1997, involves nuclear fusion, the same process that generates heat in the sun and other stars. Proponents believe it has the potential to provide an abundant, safe and green source of energy.

In China, scientists ran a nuclear fusion reactor to heat up to 70 million degrees Celsius for as long as 1,056 seconds (17 minutes, 36 seconds), a milestone that followed a landmark experiment in May that generated a plasma – or hot gas – at a temperature of 120 million degrees C for 101 seconds.

Grohnde Nuclear Power Plant in Emmerthal, Germany. After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, Western countries turned away from nuclear power. But technologies available today are safe and improved. Photo: EPA-EFE

Meanwhile, US government scientists, by using the world’s largest laser, have coaxed fusion fuel for the first time to heat up as self-sustaining energy, proof it can be self-sustaining to generate power.