In an ongoing quest for clean, limitless energy, scientists have been experimenting with nuclear fusion – the same process that occurs in our Sun and produces energy.
While nuclear fission comes with the scary and devastating risk of nuclear meltdown, nuclear fusion is much a much safer and cleaner form of energy production, and the hydrogen fuel used in the process is so abundant that the energy production is virtually limitless.
Germany has been leading the way around the world with it’s Wendelstein 7-X (W 7-X) stellerator, and has come another step closer to making nuclear fusion energy a reality.
“To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented accuracy, both in terms of the as-built engineering of a fusion device, as well as in the measurement of magnetic topology,” the scientists wrote.
‘Fusion has the potential to cover the energy needs of the world’s population into the distant future,’
Initial operations kicked off with their machine back in February this year, and now, the scientists working on the project are saying that it is exceeding all expectations. Recent tests of the machine have reported an error rate of less than 1 in 100,000, which is incredible.
There is still some way to go before nuclear fusion will be ready to be put into practice around the world, it goes without saying that once nuclear fusion is ready to become our primary source of energy around the world, it will be one of the biggest science achievements in our history.
