Our researchers involved in fusion energy:
- David Hwang, professor of applied science
- N.C. Luhmann, distinguished professor of applied science and Electrical and Computer Engineering
Fusion energy from the sea
Here is a time-traveler’s look at the possible future of energy as influenced by UC Davis activities — a preview of everyday life as we might experience it five to 50 years from now.
Predicted timing: 2060
Ironically, the ultimate solution to the greenhouse effect was harnessing the power of the sun —not solar energy but its precursor, fusion energy, the energy production method that powers Earth’s sun and all the other stars in the universe
In what many people consider the most difficult scientific achievement ever, an international collaboration of scientists (including several at UC Davis) perfected the process of making electricity efficiently by fusing hydrogen atoms.
Back in 2007, virtually all the world’s electrical power production (about 15 terawatts annually) came from burning fossil fuels — oil, coal and natural gas mined from underground. But today, most electricity comes from burning hydrogen isotopes (deuterium and tritium) mined from seawater.
Power for billions of years
Whereas fossil fuels were projected to last until perhaps only 2200, the hydrogen isotopes in seawater should supply our power demands for billions of years.
Besides solving the supply problem, fusion energy solved the greenhouse gas problem.
Whereas every pound of fossil fuel burned produced a pound of carbon dioxide, the fusion of hydrogen isotopes produces helium, which is not a greenhouse gas. (Like fission reactors, fusion reactors produce radioactive waste, but fusion waste is far less dangerous to human health and there is far less of it.)
Central to this achievement was the work of UC Davis plasma physicists David Hwang and N.C. Luhmann Jr. and their colleagues in the Department of Applied Science (founded by Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen fusion weapon, the H-bomb).
Continuously refueling the power plant
Hwang’s group helped figure out how to continuously refuel a fusion power plant.
Their experiments with a particle accelerator made it possible to send a steady stream of hydrogen atoms into the million-degree reaction chamber, much as one would feed a fireplace with fresh logs.
Luhmann’s group helped devise the necessary techniques for monitoring the conditions inside the super-hot fusion chamber, using light and electromagnetic waves.
In June 2007, there were roughly 18,000 carbon-emitting power plants in the world. China alone was building a new coal-fired plant every week.
Now those dirty power-makers are dinosaurs, rapidly being driven to extinction by a mere 1,000 plants making energy from the original solar power: fusion.
— Sylvia Wright