New group of experts to promote fusion in Germany

“The energy crisis shows that we need climate-neutral, reliable and economical energy sources like fusion,” Stark-Watzinger told the Handelsblatt. Her hope: “We can bring the sun to earth.”

Constantin Häfner, head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology, is responsible for making this vision a reality. He will lead the new research group in the BMBF.

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Häfner is familiar with research in the USA: he has done research and worked himself at the LLNL, where the breakthrough in nuclear fusion has now been achieved.

Researchers from Germany and the USA

Of the scientist is confident that Germany can also play an important role in this future issue. In this country there is an “extremely efficient ecosystem” of research institutions, industry and universities, says Häfner. One is therefore able to develop key technologies.

Häfner’s new team at the BMBF will consist of seven researchers from Germany and the USA who are considered experts in the field of nuclear fusion – including Omar Hurricane and Tammy Ma, who work at the LLNL. According to the ministry, the aim is to align the funding of the BMBF more precisely from next summer. The commission of experts should present a memorandum on this in the spring.

However, it is still completely unclear when the first fusion power plant can be put into operation. Ever since researchers discovered how the sun works in the 1920s, there has been the idea of ​​bringing nuclear fusion to Earth. According to a joke in scientific circles, the launch of fusion power plants is still exactly 30 years away.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm

“One of the most impressive scientific achievements of the 21st century,” Granholm praised the success of the US researchers.

(Photo: dpa)

The fact that the technology has been researched for almost 100 years is also due to its great promise of a climate-neutral, harmless and efficient form of energy generation. According to the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, one gram of fuel could produce as much power as burning eleven tons of coal.

Great economic potential

Business has also discovered this potential for itself. Start-ups like TAE Technologies, Focused Energy or General Fusion rely on future technology and are supported by investors like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

According to the Fusion Industry Association, the industry received $2.8 billion in investments last year alone. The German company Marvel Fusion would also like to make a breakthrough with nuclear fusion. The goal of the Munich start-up is to build reactors based on this technology by 2030.

Cooperation between science and business is also one of the declared goals of the new expert commission headed by Fraunhofer researcher Häfner. It is intended to investigate how German science and the start-up scene can contribute to global developments in nuclear fusion.

A first experimental model of a nuclear fusion reactor has been under construction since 2007. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) is located in southern France and is funded by China, India, Japan, South Korea, the US and the EU.

But this also shows how difficult it is to develop nuclear fusion-based energy production. The launch schedule is being pushed back further and further, and the costs are multiplying.

Because there are still many unsolved problems. An analysis by ETH Zurich, for example, came to the conclusion in 2020 that there was no material that could withstand the extremely high temperatures without slowing down the high-energy neutrons inside.

More: CDU supports nuclear fusion

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