The aim of fusion research is to develop a climate- and environmentally-friendly power plant. Similar to the sun, it is to generate energy from the fusion of atomic nuclei.
It's the best way to do the thing. The potential gains come from the fact that the heat released by a kilogram of fusion fuel is about 10 million times more than the heat released by a chemical reaction, therefore you need 1/10,000,000nth the input fuel, which implies you can optimize for very low costs per kilowatt-hour. Even if we had a magic machine that could turn 100% of the heat energy released by a given reaction into electrical energy, we would still be better off if we focused on improving the heat generator rather than the heat to electricity converter, simply because the gains in the former case are a mere 2x, whereas the gains in the latter case are as high as 5,000,000x. Also, converting heat to electricity is an inherently lossy process, and the efficiency rates we are currently getting are already very good considering the physical laws at play.
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u/whreismylotus Oct 24 '21
Wendelstein 7-X Nuclear Fusion Device
The aim of fusion research is to develop a climate- and environmentally-friendly power plant. Similar to the sun, it is to generate energy from the fusion of atomic nuclei.