EuroFusion is a European consortium. It has just taken a crucial step in the quest for commercially viable nuclear fusion. The consortium just released a press statement announcing a five-year “conceptual design” phase for its DEMOnstration power plant (DEMO). Nuclear fusion scientists are starting design work on a European demonstration power station that they hope will finally enable net nuclear fusion energy. If successful, this will end our reliance of fossil fuels.
     Nuclear fusion is the reaction that powers our Sun and other stars. It occurs when two light atoms are smashed against each other to form the nucleus of a heavier element. A huge amount of energy is released in the process. The most popular experimental fusion reactor is called a tokamak. Tokamaks are donut shaped reactors that utilize powerful magnets to contain the burning plasmas required for the fusion reaction to take place. The DEMO is a tokamak.
     EuroFusion stated that DEMO’s conceptual design phase “charts a route of scientific and engineering research from the basic science of current devices, all the way to designing the demonstration fusion power plant DEMO, capable of net electricity production shortly after the middle of the century.” EuroFusion estimated the year 2054 for delivering commercial fusion energy.
     EuroFusion hopes to demonstrate the net production of from three hundred to five hundred megawatts of electricity. DEMO will also demonstrate new innovations such as the breeding of tritium and remote maintenance. Tritium breeding will permit operators to produce tritium fusion fuel on-site. That will be a crucial component for commercial fusion operations in the future.
      Prior to reaching the conceptual design phase, EuroFusion revealed the results of its pre-conceptual design phase which was carried out between 2014 and 2020. This phase covered several areas including power exhaust, tritium breeding and robust magnet design.
      Gianfranco Federici is the Head of the Fusion Technology Department at EuroFusion, and Tony Donné is the EuroFusion Program Manager. In the press statement, they wrote that, “the DEMO design and R&D activities in Europe are benefitting largely from the experience gained from the design, licensing, and construction of ITER.”
     However, they warned that work on facilities such as DEMO must start soon after ITER reveals its key findings in order to avoid a “brain drain” away from nuclear fusion research to other industries.
     ITER is the biggest nuclear fusion experiment in the World. It has been under construction in southern France since 2013. ITER is part of a collaboration between thirty-five nations including all of the European Union nations, China, India, Japan, Russia and the U.S. Its main goal is to show that nuclear fusion is safe and commercially viable. If it is successful, humanity will have harnessed a new way to reliably produce vast amounts of energy without damaging the Earth.
     At least a dozen other fusion research projects are currently being carried out by nations and private companies. Some of these projects estimate that they will have a prototype for a commercial nuclear fusion reactor by 2030. Since DEMO is slated to be completed by 2054, it may very well be too little, too late.