Fusion's Promise: How Technological Breakthroughs in Nuclear Fusion Can Conquer Climate Change on Earth

by Matthew Moynihan, Alfred B. Bortz

For over 60 years, scientists and engineers have been trying to crack a seemingly intractable how to build practical devices that exploit nuclear fusion. Access to electricity has facilitated a standard of living that was previously unimaginable, but as the world’s population grows and developing nations increasingly reap the benefits of electrification, we face a serious global burning fossil fuels currently produces about eighty percent of the world's energy, but it produces a greenhouse effect that traps outgoing infrared radiation and warms the planet, risking dire environmental consequences unless we reduce our fossil fuel consumption to near zero in the coming decades. Nuclear fusion, the energy-producing process in the sun and stars, could provide the if it can be successfully harnessed here on Earth, it will produce electricity with near-zero CO2 byproduct by using the nuclei in water as its main fuel. The principles behind fusion are understood, but the technology is far from being fully realized, and governments, universities, and venture capitalists are pumping vast amounts of money into many ideas, some highly speculative, that could lead to functioning fusion reactors. This book puts all of these attempts together in one place, providing clear explanations for readers who are interested in new energy technologies, including those with no formal training in science or engineering. For each of the many approaches to fusion, the reader will learn who pioneered the approach, how the concept works in plain English, how experimental tests were engineered, the future prospects, and comparison with other approaches. From long-established fusion technologies to emerging and exotic methods, the reader will learn all about the idea that could eventually constitute the single greatest engineering advance in human history.

300 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2023

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nuclear fusion, as this book reminds us, has been on the cards as a potential safe, clean, green energy source for around 60 years - but still isn't a practical solution. Even so, we're a lot closer now to making it a reality, so it's helpful to have a technical backgrounder on what has happened so far and how far we have to go.

This book sits on the borderline between popular science and textbook lite. So, for example, although it has no maths in it, in the first section on plasma physics we are plunged into fairly sophisticated detail. Page 5, for example, features a graph showing the 'Comparison of the strong nuclear force between two nucleons and the electrostatic repulsion (Coulomb's inverse square law) between two protons'. It's hard to see how this diagram betters a sentence explaining it, adding visual complexity where none is required.

A little later in the same section, we get what's described as a 'deep dive into plasma models', starting with one particle and building through fluid dynamics and ideal magnetohydrodynamics to two fluids... and we're still only at page 26. We then go on to fusion technologies, with a comprehensive range of possibilities - there's a whole section, for example, on cusp systems (and who couldn't get excited about biconic cusps?). About halfway through the book we hit tokamaks, variants of them and inertial confinement, followed by a couple more obscure technologies.

In some ways, because it's most intriguing, the best bit is the final, short 'the path forward' section. Most exotically, this briefly includes the subject hinted at in the book's extraordinarily long subtitle, in a sub-section entitled 'To Mars and back'. This mentions the, possibly a little unlikely, idea of a fusion-driven rocket where plasma is blasted out of the back to provide thrust. We have enough trouble getting fusion going in a massive ground-based reactor - making it portable is arguably a very long way off.

If you want a popular science introduction to the topic, I'd be more inclined to go for Sharon Ann Holgate's Nuclear Fusion, but if you want to get into more depth and don't mind ploughing through a lot of detail, Fusion's Promise is a good source and well worth taking a look at. It's the most comprehensive summary I've seen at the descriptive level, though probably not the most exciting read.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found the book to be interesting. However, even with an engineering degree ( many year ago), I found that there was a lot that I didn’t understand. It was interesting to see the progress that has been made and I hope the the authors predicts that fusion power will become a reality in the next few decades is correct

[Sebastian Kaloš · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people get to build some really cool shit. Wishing to be one of those. Good read.