• Question: Do you see nuclear reactors switching from fission to fusion in the future?

    Asked by head520faro on 20 Dec 2024.
    • Photo: Caroline Roche

      Caroline Roche answered on 20 Dec 2024:

      Yes, if the technology allows I could see them retro-fitting the existing fission reactors with fusion ones.
      Initially, I would expect them to be larger until they have been fully developed and then made more compact. The current PWR (Pressurised Water Reactor) design, which is the type being installed in Hinkley Point C, is about 3.5m high, 3m in diameter. While the ITER fusion reactor in development in France will be around 30m high with a 12m diameter.

Comments

  • Photo: Steve P

    Steve P commented on :

    For 70 years, research has been progressing into nuclear fusion technology. The physics isn’t the problem (in that we know how fusion works), but the technology and investment is still needed to contain a sustainable fusion reaction that is both large scale and economic. The ITER (the largest fusion reactor on Earth) aims further scientific research, and provide technological demonstration of large scale fusion in less than 10 years’ time.

    The energy economy of the world keeps changing, and although there has already been a huge shift to renewables (which are largelyvariable in their output), there will always (assuming we can’t develop ‘perfect’ batteries to store energy) be a need for a steady, predictable ‘base load’ of power generation: fusion is a very strong candidate for this role.