Clean energy: Scientists make new record in replicating solar process on Earth

Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun is the Holy Grail for humanity as it can potentially open doors to limitless energy. Scientists in the United Kingdom have taken a step towards the ultimate goal and have set a nuclear fusion record.

As reported by CNN, the team of scientists was able to sustain 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds. And for this, only 0.2 milligrams of fuel was needed. Imagine using fuel that'll not even fully wet your finger and being able to generate massive amounts of clean energy with near-zero carbon emissions. It's a win-win for our energy needs as well as for climate change.

So what was this nuclear fusion experiment?

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The team of scientists, working near Oxford in UK used Joint European Torus (JET). It's a huge machine the shape of a donut. The machine is also called tokamak.

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Scientists fed deuterium and tritium to the machine. These are isotopes, or in plain language variants of Hydrogen.

The team then raised the temperature to 150 million degrees Celsius. This is 10 times hotter than solar core. At this temperature, the Hydrogen atoms fused to become Helium and generated large amount of energy. This is basically what happens during nuclear fusion in the Sun.

“Our successful demonstration of operational scenarios for future fusion machines like ITER and DEMO, validated by the new energy record, instil greater confidence in the development of fusion energy,” said Ambrogio Fasoli, CEO of EUROfusion, the group behind the experiment. Fasoli was quoted by CNN.

So is it done? Clean energy ahead?

Best scientific brains in the world are indeed working towards achieving nuclear fusion on Earth ono viable basis. Clean energy is something that's going to definitely shape future. But for now, that goal may be year ahead.

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"This is a great scientific result, but we are still a way off commercial fusion. Building a fusion power plant also has many engineering and materials challenges,” said Aneeqa Khan, research fellow in nuclear fusion at the University of Manchester.

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“However, investment in fusion is growing and we are making real progress. We need to be training up a huge number of people with the skills to work in the field and I hope the technology will be used in the latter half of the century.”

Khan was quoted by CNN

(With input from agencies)