All the nuclear power plants in operation right now use nuclear fission—the process of splitting apart an atom—to produce energy. But scientists have spent decades and entire careers in a frustrating quest to achieve nuclear fusion, which combines atoms, because it releases far more energy and produces no dangerous waste. Many hope fusion could one day be a significant source of carbon-free power.
In addition to the many technical issues that have kept nuclear fusion perpetually in development, the process also needs fuel that presents its own problems. The fuel requires a rare lithium isotope (a version of an atom of the element with a different number of neutrons) called lithium 6.
But the traditional process for sourcing lithium 6 involves using the toxic metal mercury and causes major environmental damage. It has been banned in the U.S. since 1963. The country currently relies on lithium 6 supplies that were stockpiled at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as part of nuclear weapons development programs during the cold war. “It’s kept a secret how much lithium 6 is left there, but it’s surely not enough to supply future fusion reactors,” says Sarbajit Banerjee, a professor of chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Banerjee and his team think they have found a new and environmentally safer way to extract lithium 6 from brine—and they came across it completely by accident.
First things first. Demonstrate practical nuclear fusion.
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