Fusing nuclear fusion into our lives

A long time ago, we used our own energy to manually do tasks, but now we consume far more energy from the rising demand for energy. How long will it take until we can implement nuclear fusion in our daily lives?

This spike in energy consumption has rapidly increased demands for energy, and the demand is still growing. As a result, we need more energy but if we keep using the same methods to generate energy, we will soon run out of precious resources, and this is where nuclear fusion comes in.

According to British Gas, an estimated 15 trillion watts of power are being used across our planet at any one time.

The Sun is a main-sequence star and so generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium. In its core, the Sun fuses 620 million metric tons of hydrogen per second. – Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Nuclear fusion is the process of two nuclei combining to form a bigger nucleus, and during this process, matter is transferred into energy. The reason why this is such a game changer is that by using a small amount of mass, large amounts of energy can be produced, but there’s an underlying issue.

Even though it generates a large quantity of energy, it also requires a temperature of 150 million degrees Celsius to initiate the process.

DGSChapter interviewed Dr F. McGovern, one of Dartford Grammar School’s physics specialists. She commented: “I feel that we are a long way from being able to control and sustain nuclear fusion and I do not anticipate nuclear fusion being a possible energy source in my lifetime.  Whether we are able to utilise this possible energy source in the future will depend on which direction advances in science and engineering take in the near future.”