What they call star power. Cheap, non-polluting and quite safe. Being developed only by the American government (yes that low-achieving government!) in the hills east of Oakland California.
Ross Pomeroy in Real Clear Science yesterday.
Believe it or not, America is nearing the threshold of a fusion future. By the end of 2012, scientists at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California plan to fire the most powerful laser ever constructed into a small chamber with pea-sized fuel pellets inside. The fusion fuel contained within the pellets, two isotopes of hydrogen -- deuterium and tritium -- will fuse together, producing helium, a free neutron, and massive amounts of energy in the form of heat. If all goes to plan, about ten to one hundred times more energy than the amount used to ignite the fuel will be unleashed.
With this monumental breakthrough achieved, construction could begin on a fusion power plant capable of producing 400 megawatts of base-load power, with a target completion date in the early 2020s. Capital costs would roughly be the same as a current nuclear fission power plant, between $6 and $7 billion. It's a daunting cost to be sure, but one well worth funding. Besides providing a blueprint for future fusion plants, investment in such a facility will drive innovation in multitudes of fields ranging from optics to materials science.
After the completion of the fusion test plant, construction of commercial facilities producing between 1,000 and 1,500 megawatts of fusion power can get underway. These power plants will produce electricity that's hard to find fault with. The energy will be base-load -- always available. It will be clean -- there will be no carbon dioxide emissions or hazardous waste. It will be cheap -- early estimates show fusion power to be cost-competitive with coal, even without a carbon tax. It will be nearly limitless -- up to 30 million years of fusion fuel exists on Earth. And most importantly, it will be made in America -- Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE) has been produced entirely within the United States.
Roll on carbon sequestration and space elevator to pump that seawater rise out into space. Both will become more doable.