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Fusion Power And The Climate Crisis | Earth Wise

January 24, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In December, the Department of Energy announced that scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California had achieved a breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology. Fusion is the process by which the sun generates energy. If we had the means to produce nuclear fusion in a controlled fashion, it would be an almost limitless source of clean energy.

Scientists have been trying to develop controllable fusion since the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s. H-Bombs are basically uncontrollable fusion.

There are massive experiments under development around the work seeking the means to create and control fusion. There are multi-billion-dollar projects such as the ITER tokamak project in southern France, that have been ongoing for decades. Colossal equipment is required to produce the temperatures of millions of degrees needed to fuse hydrogen atoms into helium atoms.

The Livermore project uses 192 powerful laser beams to vaporize a tiny pellet and provide the energy required to initiate fusion. The breakthrough is that the experiment released more energy than the lasers put in. This was the first time a fusion experiment produced a net gain of energy.

Is fusion the solution to de-carbonizing the energy system? Perhaps someday it might be. However, even the most optimistic fusion researchers believe it will be at least another decade before even the experimental fusion systems around the world can reliably produce energy and the efforts will cost untold billions of dollars.

The world cannot wait for fusion power to save the day. The focus must remain on currently available renewable energy technologies if we are to achieve the necessary emission reductions in time to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

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Web Links

Can Fusion Solve the Climate Crisis?

Photo, posted July 29, 2010, courtesy of Steve Jurvetson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Detecting Methane

December 23, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Natural gas has become a huge industry in the United States, increasingly replacing coal in power plants, and otherwise contributing to energy independence. Unfortunately, it also contributes to climate change. Methane – the primary component of natural gas – is a powerful greenhouse gas that is estimated to be responsible for as much as a quarter of atmospheric warming.

Not all of the emissions from natural gas come from its use. In the United States, so-called fugitive emissions from the oil and gas industry total an estimated 13 million metric tons per year. These emissions basically consist of leakage of various types from the extraction, transportation, and processing of natural gas and cost the industry $2 billion in lost revenue each year. Globally, that figure is estimated to be $30 billion.

Research labs and startup companies are working on developing and deploying novel technologies to address the growing issue of methane leaks across the fossil fuel supply chain.

One company called LongPath Technologies – a spinout from the University of Colorado – uses frequency comb laser technology that can pinpoint a leak to about a 50 square-foot area from half a mile away. Other companies use different variations on laser absorption technology to be able to measure methane concentrations from a distance.

Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but it stays in the atmosphere for much less time. As a result, reducing methane emissions can pay off much more quickly than reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The current EPA is trying to eliminate emissions regulations on the natural gas industry, but it is in the industry’s economic interest to curb those emissions even if they were unconcerned about the environment.

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Web Links

Methane Detectives: Can a Wave of New Technology Slash Natural Gas Leaks?

Photo, posted October 22, 2016, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Produce Stickers

February 21, 2017 By EarthWise

The fruit and vegetables in most grocery stores these days come with little stickers on them with a numerical code identifying the produce for the cashier at the checkout counter. They are quite helpful for the cashier but a real irritation for the customer. Half the time it is difficult to get the labels off the piece of produce and sometimes we don’t notice them at all and end up with a little paper sticker in our salad.

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