AI for Clean Fusion Energy
Scientists have started putting the new invention of the 21st century to work: AI helping humans in our quest for clean sustainable energy. The global effort to midigate carbon emissions and stop global warming has been met with numerous challenges but scientists hope that the new AI technology can help over come these obstacles.
The main challege is the energy sector for powering homes and cities. Much of the world uses fossil fuels to power their infrastructure, this means burning coal, natural gas, oil, and other carbon emission high fuels to release their energy as heat. But this is often very inefficient as most of the heat energy is not turned into electricity, but simply released into the enviroment. And most impactfully, the burning of fossil fuels release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, further severifying the global warming situation.
However, thanks to new developments in technology, fusion reactors have been seriously considered and are even being developed by countries. Nuclear power can be split into two broad forms: Fusion, and Fission. Fission nuclear power is the one we are most familiar with: the splitting of atoms to release energy that we can capture and turn into electricity. This has its problems though, as the process releases significant amounts of ionizing radiation. It is also less efficient than fusion.
Miracles of Fusion
Fusion nuclear power is different in that it does the opposite of fission. Instead of splitting atoms, atoms are instead fused together to release energy. Fusion nuclear reactions are actually very common in our universe, taking place in every star, including our sun. So this means all life on earth if fueled with the power of fusion energy in the sun. Fusion energy releases vast quantities of energy, and releases less ionizing radiation, making it a superior energy source over fission.
Fusion, unfortunatly, is much more difficult to make happen than fission, and has been a challenge to even have a successful fusion reaction on earth. So with the help of AI, scientists hope to finally have the first sustainable fusion reaction on earth.
Easier said than done...
A big challenge in fusion is that it requires extrordinaryly high temperatures to work, which most materials have a hard time standing up to. This can lead to tears and breakdowns in a reactor's structure, potentially leading to disasterous concequences. Luckily a recent experiment Princeton scientists conducted shows that an AI could predict a tear 300 milliseconds before it even happens.
“The experiments provide a foundation for using AI to solve a broad range of plasma instabilities, which have long hindered fusion energy,” a Princeton spokesperson said.