U.S. Department of Energy announces $46 million in research and development of nuclear fusion, aimed at commercial power grids

CTOnews.com, June 1, local time, on May 31, the US Department of Energy announced that it would provide US $46 million (currently about 327 million yuan) to eight companies to promote the design and development of nuclear fusion power plants, which is also an important step in the US government's commitment to conduct a national fusion demonstration.

"We get energy by drawing energy from the sun overhead, and fusion offers the potential to generate solar energy on Earth," said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granhom. The U.S. government is committed to working with innovative researchers and companies across the country to bring fusion energy from the laboratory to the grid. "

According to source PexelsCTOnews.com, conventional nuclear reactors are based on nuclear fission technology, which releases energy by hitting a large atom with a neutron and splitting it. When the nuclei of two lighter atoms, such as hydrogen, are heated to extremely high temperatures, they merge into a heavier helium nucleus and release huge energy, known as nuclear fusion, which is how stars, including the sun, power themselves.

Nuclear fusion can produce almost unlimited energy without releasing greenhouse gases and does not produce lasting nuclear waste like nuclear fission. The US government proposed earlier that nuclear fusion technology will undoubtedly become the key technological path to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.