Energy: Expert: Fusion power plant does not come faster
energy
Expert: Fusion power plant doesn’t come faster
Thomas Klinger, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, shows a picture of a hydrogen plasma. photo
© Stefan Sauer/dpa
In the United States, scientists had for the first time produced more energy than they had put directly into the fusion of atomic nuclei – a breakthrough. However, one expert dampens expectations.
According to the head of the Greifswald fusion experiment Wendelstein 7-X, the recent breakthrough by US colleagues does not lead to a much faster development of a nuclear fusion power plant. He continues to assume that the construction of a power plant in the second half of the century is realistic, Thomas Klinger told the German Press Agency. “If you go full throttle.”
In mid-December, research results from the United States cause a stir. According to the government there, scientists for the first time produced more energy by fusing atomic nuclei than they had put directly into it. From politics and science, some more optimistic forecasts came afterwards than those of Klinger, as far as the construction of a power plant is concerned.
Klinger: Technological hurdles remain gigantic
Klinger had also spoken of a scientific breakthrough. However, the technological hurdles are still gigantic, even if overcoming them is not impossible. This applies both to the fusion using lasers used by the US colleagues and to magnetic fusion, on which in Greifswald is worked. “I can very well imagine a world in which there is one like the other.” How quickly you can get over the technological hurdles is difficult to say in advance.
In nuclear fusion atomic nuclei fused instead of split unlike in the reactors of conventional nuclear power plants. Theoretically, very large amounts of energy could be generated – and much less dangerous than with nuclear fission and climate-neutral. Critics complain that nuclear fusion is too expensive, forecasts of possible use are constantly being pushed back and the technology for the energy transition comes too late.
