Google enters the field of "nuclear fusion power generation"

Google Research works hand-in-hand with major American fusion technology development companies to advance research toward realizing fusion power generation. As a result of Google's entry into fusion development, we have achieved results such as completing a new algorithm to control the plasma generated by nuclear fusion.

Google enters race for nuclear fusion technology | Environment | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/25/google-enters-race-for-nuclear-fusion-technology

Nuclear fusion power generation is an energy source that utilizes a "nuclear fusion" reaction that turns hydrogen, which is inexhaustible in sea water, into helium, unlike nuclear power generation that uses "nuclear fission" reactions such as uranium. Google'sPage on fusion power generationAccording to the report, nuclear fusion has the following advantages.

1. Resources are rich and unevenly distributed
2. Stable supply possible
3. It does not explode
4. Do not run away
5. There is no core melt (meltdown)
6. Do not emit carbon dioxide, discharge is harmless only helium that does not affect climate change
7. High level radioactive waste is not (low level of radioactive material can be produced but recyclable)
8. Irrespective of nuclear proliferation crisis

In addition, the following articles explain in detail the fusion mechanism.

Can human beings put the ultimate energy source "fusion energy" into practical use? - GIGAZINE


Nuclear fusion power generation with various advantages is being pursued in various countries as a promising future energy source, but it has not yet been realized. Fusion is nuclear fusion that can generate huge energy by bonding atoms at extreme temperatures, but small changes lead to large resultsNonlinear phenomenonIt creates. Therefore, there is a need for a technology to stabilize the plasma which changes rapidly in 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 nuclear fusion power generation, and in recent years it has reached 500 million dollars ( About 55,555,500 yen) funds are raised and research on nuclear fusion technology is under way. Tri Alpha Energy also collaborated with Google Research to "Optometrist algorithm"We succeeded in developing a breakthrough technique for experiments using plasma called so-called" Nature ". According to Ted Bartz, Google researcher, although using the computer resources of the scale of Google can not predict the behavior of the plasma, using the Optometrist algorithm combines machine learning and human input By doing so we can greatly improve the prediction results.

Also, Tri Alpha Energy owns the machine "C - 2U" used for plasma confinement experiments, but with the algorithm developed jointly with Google, the energy loss is reduced by 50% and the total amount of plasma energy It was said that it succeeded in increasing it. Tri Alpha Energy's Mihil Binder Bauer CTO said, "The result would have took several years to resolve without sophisticated computing resources," according to Google joining fusion development It seems that various processing has accelerated. Tri Alpha Energy aims to realize electricity generation using nuclear fusion within the next ten years.


Research on nuclear fusion power generation has been in operation around the world for more than 60 years, and billions of dollars have been invested, but it is still a matter of time before the commercial scale fusion power generation is realized Ten years are expected to be necessary. The world's largest nuclear fusion project is "International thermonuclear fusion experiment reactor ITERPartnership is organized in the United States, EU, China, India, Korea, Russia and Japan, and a budget of 18 billion euros (about 2.3 trillion yen) is spent.

The ITER project aims to produce first plasma by 2025 and achieve maximum output by 2035. If this is successful, ITER is expected to be the foundation of the world's first nuclear fusion power plant.