Update on Nuclear Fusion

Here’s the latest from nuclear fusion hopeful Tri Alpha Energy, now called TAE.  I was introduced to these guys by my friend Jim Boyden, who got his PhD in physics from Cal Tech the same year I entered kindergarten.

The game with fusion appears simple: focusing enough energy onto hydrogen atoms such that they fuse to become helium atoms. Our sun is the perfect place for all this, given the extreme temperatures and pressures, and the fact that it’s a comfortable 93 million miles away.  Mustering this much concentrated energy on Earth takes some doing, if it’s to be done safely.  Moreover, unlike fission, where chain reactions are easy to achieve, causing the equivalent in fusion requires more work.

This is why, as they say, “cold fusion is more the subject of seances than sciences.” (Thanks to Glenn Doty for that one.)

The benefits, however, are considerable.  Smashing atoms of hydrogen and boron together yields three helium atoms and no extra (potentially lethal) neutrons.  (Thus the name Tri Alpha, as a helium nucleus is called an “alpha particle.”) By contrast, we need to concern ourselves with nuclear waste from fission for thousands of years to come.

Go for it, guys.