Solving Engineering Challenges to Make Fusion a Viable Clean Energy Source
Story by:
Published Date
Article Content
“The way scientists think about fusion changed forever in 2022, when what some called the experiment of the century demonstrated for the first time that fusion can be a viable source of clean energy.
The experiment, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, showed ignition: a fusion reaction generating more energy out than was put in.
In addition, the past few years have been marked by a multibillion-dollar windfall of private investment in the field, principally in the United States.
But a whole host of engineering challenges must be addressed before fusion can be scaled up to become a safe, affordable source of virtually unlimited clean power. In other words, it’s engineering time.”
These are the opening paragraphs of a piece by Professors Farhat Beg and George Tynan, two fusion experts and faculty members in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California San Diego.
In the piece, Beg and Tynan detail the challenges engineers will have to solve in order to make fusion energy a viable clean energy source. Read it here.
A laser setup that Farhat Beg’s research group plans to use to repeatedly hit a fusion fuel target. The goal of the experiments is to better control the target’s placement and tracking.
Photo: David Baillot/Jacobs School of Engineering
Share This:
Stay in the Know
Keep up with all the latest from UC San Diego. Subscribe to the newsletter today.
