To make nuclear fusion a reliable energy source one day, scientists will first need to design heat- and radiation-resilient materials

Image caption:  A worker inside the DIII-D vacuum vessel during a maintenance period in 2017. Image credit: Rswilcox via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0 (no changes were made) Article by Sophie Blondel. The Conversation – October 18, 2024. 

Fusion energy has the potential to be an effective clean energy source, as its reactions generate incredibly large amounts of energy. Fusion reactors aim to reproduce on Earth what happens in the core of the Sun, where very light elements merge and release energy in the process. Engineers can harness this energy to heat water and generate electricity through a steam turbine, but the path to fusion isn’t completely straightforward. […]

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