Google enters the field of 'nuclear fusion power generation'
Google Research has teamed up with a major American nuclear fusion technology development company to conduct research to realize nuclear fusion power generation. Google's participation in nuclear fusion development has led to the completion of new algorithms for controlling the plasma generated by nuclear fusion.
Google enters race for nuclear fusion technology | Environment | The Guardian
Unlike nuclear power generation, which uses the 'nuclear fission' reaction of uranium, nuclear fusion power generation is an energy source that uses the 'nuclear fusion' reaction to convert the hydrogen that exists in seawater, which is inexhaustible, into helium. According to the page on nuclear fusion power generation , nuclear fusion has the following advantages:
1. Resources are abundant and not unevenly distributed
2. Stable supply possible
3. No explosions
4. Don't get carried away
5. No meltdowns
6. It emits no carbon dioxide, only helium, which is harmless and has no impact on climate change
7. No high-level radioactive waste is produced (low-level radioactive waste is produced, but it can be recycled)
8. No connection to the nuclear proliferation crisis
The following article also provides a detailed explanation of how nuclear fusion works.
Can humanity put the ultimate energy source, 'nuclear fusion energy,' into practical use? - GIGAZINE
Nuclear fusion power generation has many advantages, and research is being conducted in various countries as a promising energy source of the future, but it has not yet been realized. Nuclear fusion can generate huge amounts of energy by combining atoms at extreme temperatures, but it creates nonlinear phenomena in which small changes can have big results. Therefore, technology is needed to stabilize the rapidly changing plasma generated by nuclear fusion.
Tri Alpha Energy, an American fusion energy company supported by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is one of the companies aiming to realize such fusion power generation, and in recent years has raised $500 million (about 55.55 billion yen) to research fusion technology. Tri Alpha Energy has also collaborated with Google Research to develop a groundbreaking method for experiments using plasma called the ' Optometrist algorithm ,' which was published in Nature. According to Google researcher Ted Baltz, even with Google's scale of computer resources, it is not possible to predict the behavior of plasma, but the Optometrist algorithm can significantly improve prediction results by combining machine learning and human input.
Tri Alpha Energy also owns the 'C-2U' machine used for plasma containment experiments, but the algorithm developed in collaboration with Google has succeeded in reducing energy loss by 50% and increasing the total amount of plasma energy. Tri Alpha Energy CTO Mihir Binderbauer said, 'Without advanced computing resources, this result would have taken several years to solve,' and it seems that Google's participation in nuclear fusion development has accelerated various processes. Tri Alpha Energy aims to realize power generation using nuclear fusion within the next 10 years.
Fusion research has been ongoing for over 60 years in various countries around the world, costing billions of dollars, but it is expected to take decades to produce fusion power on a commercial scale. The world's largest fusion project is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER ) in southern France, which is a partnership between the United States, the EU, China, India, South Korea, Russia, and Japan, with a budget of 18 billion euros (approximately 2.34 trillion yen).
The ITER project aims to produce the first plasma by 2025 and reach full power by 2035. If successful, ITER would serve as the basis for the world's first nuclear fusion power plant.
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in Science, Posted by darkhorse_log