Fusion Science as a Clean Energy Source

Fusion Science as a Clean Energy Source

This article relates to Terrestrial History

Joe Mungo Reed's novel Terrestrial History begins with a fusion scientist named Hannah, who has retreated to her cottage in the Scottish Western Isles to finish a review of "computing challenges in confinement models." Upon reading this, I realized I had no idea what it meant to be a fusion scientist, what a "confinement model" would be, or even what fusion actually is. I felt the urge to google.

The word "fusion" has many meanings, but in Terrestrial History it refers to the process of nuclear fusion, where two lighter-weight nuclei collide, resulting in both a heavier, bonded nucleus and, more importantly, a massive output of energy. Scientists believe that the energy output of nuclear fusion could be the key to an inexpensive, carbon-free, self-sustaining energy source that could outlast humanity. The hydrogen isotopes needed by scientists to create fusion, deuterium and tritium, are plentiful on Earth, and the reaction itself is safe—there is no nuclear waste and no risk of runaway reactions causing explosions or the like. While the sun and stars are naturally powered by nuclear fusion, leading many to refer to fusion power as a "star in a jar" or a "sun in a bottle," physicists and engineers have struggled with replicating a viable, commercial model of nuclear fusion since the 1940s.

One of the biggest challenges is controlling and confining the fusion reaction in order to create a positive output of energy, which may be what Reed is referring to in Terrestrial History when Hannah is reviewing confinement models and what results in failed nuclear fusion machines in Kenzie's timeline 50 years later. Nuclear fusion occurs in a state of matter outside of the normal three (liquid, solid, and gas) called plasma, which is a very hot form of gas in which atoms are broken down. Electrons and ions move more freely in plasma, allowing electric and magnetic currents to flow more easily and create more reactions. However, plasma must be heated to over 100 million degrees Celsius in order to facilitate fusion, and the heating requires much energy in itself, resulting in a negative output of energy in many current fusion models. At the same time, electric and magnetic forces, pressure, and the extraction process must all be controlled precisely in order to keep plasma stable and continuously produce energy. Simply put, fusion reactions are difficult to control and they require a lot of energy to produce.

The earliest fusion machines were developed in the 1950s and continue to be the models for today's fusion technology. The tokamak, the first of which was created in Russia in 1958, and the stellarator, developed by Princeton University researcher Lyman Spitzer in 1951, are both donut-shaped machines that confine plasma in a magnetic field, with differing mechanisms for controlling the magnetic field.

Fusion physicists and engineers have built on these models and tinker with the use of other approaches, including lasers, to heat plasma. A recent breakthrough came from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California—the first fusion experiment to reach an energy breakeven. The US Department of Energy announced these results on December 13, 2022, calling it a "historic, first-of-its kind achievement."

Other standout organizations that are leading research in fusion machines include the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which is currently expanding on breakthrough tokamak research done in the 1980s and '90s, and ITER, an international group of 33 nations collaborating with the goal of creating the world's largest tokamak, capable of holding 830 cubic meters of plasma, exceeding the maximum plasma volume of 100 cubic meters held by the UK's JET and Japan's JT-60 tokamaks.

If scientists are just now producing a positive output of clean energy using fusion science, it is interesting to think of how this would be applied to Reed's novel, where fusion is the last stand against total environmental breakdown.

Drawing of design for ITER Tokamak and Plant Systems, 2016, courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory via Flickr, CC-BY-2.0.

Filed under Medicine, Science and Tech

This article relates to Terrestrial History. It first ran in the May 7, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.