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Articles on Nuclear fusion

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The superheated plasma inside the fusion reactor is twisted by magnetic fields. IPP, Matthias Otte

A new twist on fusion power could help bring limitless clean energy

Fusion power, if it works, offers vast amounts of clean energy and almost zero carbon emissions. A new experimental fusion reactor has come online, and it uses a curious twisted stellarator design.
Hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. NASA/SDO (AIA)

Before fusion: a human history of fire

Fire has played a vital role in human history, and will continue to. Recent advances in fusion herald the freeing of fire from captivity back into its natural form.
Radioactively contaminated territory around the Mayak nuclear facility in Russia. Nikulina/Slapovskaya/Heinrich Boell Foundation Moscow

The risks attached to South Africa’s nuclear energy strategy

The nuclear deal South Africa signed with Russia is set to be massively expensive and comes with a fair amount of risks.
The Joint European Torus (seen here with a superimposed image of a plasma) is one of the machines helping to unlock fusion power. Wikimedia Commons

Nuclear fusion, the clean power that will take decades to master

Why don’t we have nuclear fusion power yet? Because it involves taming plasmas at temperatures far hotter than the Sun’s core. But the good news is that physicists are slowly but surely figuring out how.
Portable fusion by 2015? Still the stuff of science fiction, sadly. Ed g2s/Wikimedia Commons

Don’t get too excited, no one has cracked nuclear fusion yet

Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin’s announcement this week that it could make small-scale nuclear fusion power a reality in the next decade has understandably generated excitement in the media. Physicists…
Superheated plasma inside the tokamak reactor, a split second before a fusion reaction. Scott Silburn/James Harrison/Alex Meakins

For decades a distant dream, the countdown to nuclear fusion may have finally begun

The latest results from the National Ignition Facility in the US represent the passing of a nuclear fusion power milestone and come after a year of significant progress at projects in France and the UK…
True fusion will be way more impressive than this. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Giant leap for nuclear fusion as lasers blast new route to ultimate energy source

Researchers in the US have overcome a key barrier to making nuclear fusion reactors a reality. In results published in Nature, scientists have shown that they can now produce more energy from fusion reactions…
Nuclear power and nuclear weapons: what’s the difference? Patrik Hermansson

Debunking myths on nuclear power (it’s not for making bombs)

It is the received wisdom that nuclear weapons and nuclear power are inseparable. Consequently, any country that builds a civilian nuclear power station is able to build an atomic bomb within a couple…

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