WHERE is the hottest known spot in the solar system? The surprising answer is that it is in the village of Culham in Oxfordshire, UK, beside the river Thames. This is the home of the Joint European Torus (JET), a record-breaking fusion facility. When powered up, plasma rushes around the reactor鈥檚 core at 150 million 掳C, hotter than the centre of the sun.
JET is a poster child for the backers of fusion power, the technology that has, for decades, been touted as a solution to our energy and climate woes. The process yields vast amounts of energy, but no carbon dioxide and little other waste. If we could tame it, we would have a virtually unlimited supply of clean energy.
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鈥淚f鈥� is key here. After decades of research, no electricity has ever been generated by a fusion reactor. That might make attentive readers of this magazine wonder why it has had so much coverage lately. In 2020, our cover story took a deep dive into how artificial intelligence could help the quest for fusion power. In August this year, we reported the milestone that the National Ignition Facility in the US had created a fusion reaction energetic enough to be self-sustaining. This week, we are at it again, weighing up the claims of a multitude of start-ups that are promising to deliver commercial fusion power in about 10 years.
One reason to keep an eye on this is because the clean energy solutions we choose to invest our time, money and effort into now really matter. Will fusion ever deliver? The jury is still out. Experimental facilities such as JET have shown that the power of stars can be tamed for short periods. In that sense, progress is accelerating. But there are still big challenges, not least finding a material robust enough to house a fusion reaction in the long term.
To truly harness the power of a star on Earth, we have a long way to go, but the recent advances are reasons for optimism. As countries across Europe struggle to keep the lights on this winter, we are reminded that any alternative to fossil fuels is worth exploring.
