How has fusion inspired the imaginations of science fiction writers? In The Expanse blockbuster book and TV series, fusion energy has changed the course of civilisation in extraordinary ways – for better and worse. Ty Franck, one half of the James S.A Corey writing duo behind The Expanse, and Canadian futurist and science fiction writer Karl Schroeder join Erica Vowles to weigh in on the fantasy and future of fusion.
Lead author Yurii Victorovich Kovtun, despite being forced to evacuate the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology amid the current Russia-Ukraine war, has continued to work with Kyoto University to create stable plasmas using microwaves.
Getting plasma just right is one of the hurdles to harnessing the massive amounts of energy promised by nuclear fusion.
Plasmas — soups of ions and electrons — must be held at the right density, temperature, and duration for atomic nuclei to fuse together to achieve the desired release of energy.
In 1942 The Manhattan Project was established by the United States as part of a top-secret research and development (R&D) program to produce the first nuclear weapons. The project involved thousands of scientists, engineers, and other personnel who worked on different aspects of the project, including the development of nuclear reactors, the enrichment of uranium, and the design and construction of the bomb. The goal: to develop an atomic bomb before Germany did.
The Manhattan Project set a precedent for large-scale government-funded R&D programs. It also marked the beginning of the nuclear age and ushered in a new era of technological and military competition between the world’s superpowers.
Today we’re entering the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)—an era arguably just as important, if not more important, than the age of nuclear war. While the last few months might have been the first you’ve heard about it, many in the field would argue we’ve been headed in this direction for at least the last decade, if not longer. For those new to the topic: welcome to the future, you’re late.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 had a profound deep impact on the economy, inflating the prices of energy and food, with detrimental consequences for both individuals and companies worldwide. As a result, many governments, particularly in Europe, have been discussing the possibility of reducing their dependence on Russian energy.
Most of these ongoing discussions specifically focus on fossil fuel energy, leading to the gradual introduction of sanctions for purchasing Russian coal, oil, and gas. However, Russia is also a key global provider of nuclear power, particularly via a state-owned nuclear energy corporation called Rosatom.
Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) have recently carried out a study investigating the activity and global portfolio of Rosatom and its subsidiaries. Their findings, published in Nature Energy, highlight the high degree of European dependency on nuclear energy produced by this company, raising important questions about the need to find alternative energy suppliers.
Superconductors make highly efficient electronics, but the ultralow temperatures and ultrahigh pressures required to make them work are costly and difficult to implement. Room-temperature superconductors promise to change that.
The recent announcement by researchers at the University of Rochester of a new material that is a superconductor at room temperature, albeit at high pressure, is an exciting development – if proved. If the material or one like it works reliably and can be economically mass-produced, it could revolutionize electronics.
Room-temperature superconducting materials would lead to many new possibilities for practical applications, including ultraefficient electricity grids, ultrafast and energy-efficient computer chips, and ultrapowerful magnets that can be used to levitate trains and control fusion reactors.
In 1960, visionary physicist Freeman Dyson proposed that an advanced alien civilization would someday quit fooling around with kindergarten-level stuff like wind turbines and nuclear reactors and finally go big, completely enclosing their home star to capture as much solar energy as they possibly could. They would then go on to use that enormous amount of energy to mine bitcoin, make funny videos on social media, delve into the deepest mysteries of the Universe, and enjoy the bounties of their energy-rich civilization.
But what if the alien civilization was… us? What if we decided to build a Dyson sphere around our sun? Could we do it? How much energy would it cost us to rearrange our solar system, and how long would it take to get our investment back? Before we put too much thought into whether humanity is capable of this amazing feat, even theoretically, we should decide if it’s worth the effort. Can we actually achieve a net gain in energy by building a Dyson sphere?
Anti-social bookworm Henry Bemis (Burgess Meredith) suffers a cruel twist of fate as he finds himself in a nuclear wasteland without his reading glasses. Check back each Thursday for more Twilight Zone Classic videos. Stream The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access.
Tapping The Power Of The Stars — Dr. Andrea Kritcher Ph.D., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy.
Dr. Andrea (Annie) Kritcher, Ph.D. is a nuclear engineer and physicist who works at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (https://www.llnl.gov/). She is the design lead of the HYBRID-E capsule technology within Lawrence Livermore’s Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program, and is a member of the ICF leadership team and lead designer for shot N210808, at their National Ignition Facility, a recent experiment that heralded a significant step towards a fusion break-even target. She was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2022.
Dr. Kritcher was first employed at Lawrence Livermore as a summer intern in 2004, as an LLNL Lawrence Scholar during her time at UC Berkeley, where she earned a master’s degree and doctorate in nuclear engineering, and as a Lawrence postdoctoral fellow in 2009 following completion of her Ph.D. During her postdoctoral appointment she explored using X-rays to measure the properties of warm and hot dense matter (plasma), and measuring how nuclei interact with dense plasma.
In 2012, Dr. Kritcher became a member of scientific staff and now serves as team lead for integrated implosion modeling and is a group leader within the design physics division at LLNL.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. Its principal responsibility is ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons through the application of advanced science, engineering, and technology. The laboratory also applies its special expertise and multidisciplinary capabilities towards preventing the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction, bolstering homeland security, and solving other nationally important problems, including energy and environmental needs, scientific research and outreach, and economic competitiveness.
Robots in their current form contribute far more to our modern day life than you may realise. They may not be the sci-fi androids many imagine, but they’re hard at work doing tasks like building cars, or learning how to control nuclear fusion (opens in new tab). Only in recent years are we starting to see robots like you might have imagined as a kid, with Boston Dynamics’ creations doing all sorts of crazy stunts (opens in new tab) like dancing (opens in new tab) or guarding Pompeii (opens in new tab).
Robotics isn’t all about metal machines it turns out, and biohybrid robots may be part of our cyberpunk future too. It’s only been a few days since I was introduced to OSCAR, an artist’s rendition of a disgustingly meaty, pulsating flesh robot (opens in new tab). As wonderful and vivid as those videos are, it’s a good time to take a palette cleanser with a look at a real-world biohybrid robot.
Rolls-Royce is now aiming to “have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.”
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) said on Friday it would invest a significant amount in Rolls-Royce’s project to produce nuclear power on the moon.
The government agency will now invest £2.9 million (around $3.52 million) in the project in order to “deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor.”
Rolls Royce.
In a statement, the UKSA outlined how researchers from Rolls-Royce had been working on a Micro-Reactor program “to develop technology that will provide the power needed for humans to live and work on the Moon.”
