Canyon Magnet
for Clean Energy and Healthcare
The Sun and Energy
Fusion energy, inspired by the Sun's process, holds the key to addressing our energy crisis and climate change. By replicating controlled fusion reactions, we can tap into an almost limitless, clean energy source without hazardous waste or greenhouse gas emissions. This breakthrough could revolutionize our approach to energy, offering a vital solution to our pressing environmental and energy challenges.
Energy Crisis
The global energy issue revolves around an impending energy crisis characterized by various challenges. These challenges include the depletion of finite fossil fuel resources, geopolitical tensions over energy supply, environmental degradation from their use, and the urgent need to transition to more sustainable and renewable energy sources. The reliance on fossil fuels contributes to climate change due to their greenhouse gas emissions. The energy crisis requires swift actions to invest in renewable energy technologies, improve energy efficiency, and develop strategies for energy security and environmental sustainability.
Climate change - wild fire
Climate change is contributing to an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires around the world. Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and changing precipitation patterns create conditions conducive to the ignition and rapid spread of wildfires. These fires not only devastate ecosystems and communities, but they also release significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, further exacerbating the cycle of climate change.
Climate change - flooding
Climate change is exacerbating the risk of flooding in numerous regions across the globe, as rising global temperatures contribute to the melting of polar ice caps and the thermal expansion of oceans. This, in turn, leads to sea level rise, intensification of rainfall patterns, and more frequent and severe storms, all of which contribute to a higher likelihood of devastating floods that can impact communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems.
Fusion Energy
Fusion energy is a potential revolutionary solution to the world's energy challenges. It involves the process of combining atomic nuclei at extremely high temperatures and pressures, similar to the process that powers the sun. Unlike traditional nuclear fission, which involves splitting atoms, fusion releases energy by fusing light atomic nuclei, such as hydrogen isotopes, to form a heavier nucleus. Fusion offers several advantages
Abundant Fuel: Fusion uses isotopes of hydrogen, such as deuterium and tritium, which are abundant and can be extracted from water and lithium.
Clean and Safe: Fusion produces no greenhouse gas emissions or long-lived radioactive waste, making it environmentally friendly. The fusion process is inherently safe, as it requires precise conditions to sustain.
Energy Density: Fusion has an incredibly high energy density, meaning a small amount of fuel can produce a large amount of energy.
Fuel Security: Fusion fuel sources are widespread, reducing dependence on specific regions for energy supply.
Minimal Land Footprint: Fusion power plants would require relatively small land areas compared to other energy sources.
The White House - Fact Sheet: Developing a Bold Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy
Key topics of discussion at the event include:
(1) describing the state of fusion technology and its benefits to the climate, energy security, and U.S. global competitiveness,
(2) defining the steps needed to build a fusion industry that supports energy and environmental justice, energy ethics, environmental sustainability, diversity, and effective public engagement.
(3) outlining the fusion industry’s visions and challenges, and how the U.S. government can accelerate fusion technology.
The right time to develop fusion energy: U.S. Fusion Pilot Plant
The 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid. Washington, DC:
The National Academies Press. the US should remain an ITER partner as the most cost-effective way to gain experience with a burning plasma at the scale of a power plant.
The US should start a national program of accompanying research and technology leading to the construction of a compact pilot plant that produces electricity from fusion at the lowest possible capital cost.
The United States should strive to start construction of the pilot by 2035 and to have it running by 2040, according to a report released this week by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).
Road map on US fusion pilot plant
Plans to build a prototype fusion power plant in the United States have come into tighter focus, as a new report lays out a rough timeline for building the multibillion-dollar plant and a strategy for developing its design.
To meet that tight schedule, the report calls for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help fund two to four teams that, in collaboration with private industry, would develop by 2028 different conceptual designs.
"The report's call to form public-private teams to flesh out the various concepts for a pilot plant would be highly beneficial", says Steven Cowley, director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, DOE's fusion lab. "The U.S. needs to have its own version of designing a fusion reactor to see what it is and how close we are," Cowley say. "I think there's huge a value in that."
Fusion Reactors
Tokomak, Stellarators, and others
Tokamak
https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainstokamaks
Stellarator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellarator