New Development Sparks Fusion Hopes

As alternative energy sources go, fusion power may be the ultimate goal. It seems like it has been "almost here" for years. So is it? Not Yet! But the various research projects and developments keep rolling along. A recent innovation for the "Z Machine" facility at the Sandia National Laboratories carries hopes with it that the Sandia project may gain a little ground on what is probably the world's leading fusion project right now, the ITER which is an experimental reactor that is going to be built in Caderache, France next year.

New Scientist has an article about a rapid-firing "spark plug" (actually a device called a Linear Transformer Driver) that may help boost the efficiency of the inertial confinement method being used at Sandia, which has until now been less efficient and shown less practical promise than the magnetic confinement method used at the Joint European Torus in Culham, UK (JET) and which will be used in ITER.

Fusion is actually a pretty controversial form of alternative power. Despite decades of research and billions of dollars spent on it, a viable fusion power station is probably still decades away (ITER won't be operational until 2015, and it is just the next step for magnetic confinement, not a fully functioning production facility). Critics say this is taking valuable research dollars away from other more viable forms of alternate energy. One leading scientist published a paper in the journal Science recently saying he believes fusion will never be practical as an alternate source of energy because there are just too many insurmountable obstacles that still have to be overcome.

So if you are interested, there is a general overview of fusion reactions and what is required at the JET web site. For a more brain-straining explanation, the Wikipedia article on fusion is excellent. And while you are at it, you may want to visit the ITER site or the Z Machine site (links above).

And for those of you who remember that short period of hope and the following crash of Cold Fusion way back when, that horse is not dead yet. Recent experiments (reproducible this time) seem to show there really is SOMETHING going on there, and if that actually turned out to be the way ahead the irony would just be too sadsterical (that's sad and hysterical at the same time, couldn't think of a better way to say it...)

Hydrogen Bus Fleet

So, is there a hydrogen bus fleet or a hydrogen highway? Not yet! But there will be soon in British Columbia. There is an $89 million project to develop a fleet of 20 hydrogen fuelled buses and fulling stations in Whistler, Vancouver, and Victoria to supply the "hydrogen highway". The plan is to have it operational for showcasing at the 2010 Olympics. In fact, in cooperation with the United States the highway is planned to be operational all the way to San Diego by 2010. There is a short article about it here at CBC.

Hydrogen fulled vehicles are ZEVs, which are zero-emission vehicles. The only by-products are pure water and heat. The only problem with them at the moment is that we produce hydrogen using methods that do pollute during the production process. However, if we do get the distribution infrastructure and the vehicles put in place, the production method could be altered to a more environmentally friendly method. This seems to be the most feasible approach to me, one step at a time. It would be impractical to move to alternate production methods before a market has been developed.

So how long until hydrogen vehicles are in the hands of the average consumer? There are prototypes out there, and the big companies are going to be showing them off in the near future. Considering the momentum that concern over climate change is imparting to environmentally friendly technological change now, perhaps we'll see them a lot sooner than most of us originally thought! I'll see if I can round up some of the news on the prototypes that are out there and do a little summary in an upcoming yeti tracks. See you out there!