Fusion energy

Talk: 14th December 2023, 19:00, Conference Hall/Library of Alovera.

Have you ever wondered why the sun emits so much energy? Without this energy, which seems to be endless, no type of life on our planet would be possible. The key is in the large amount of energy hidden inside the atom, more specifically inside its nucleus. The sun is an incandescent gas, so hot that the electrons and nuclei of its atoms separate in a kind of "soup" that we call plasma. Due to the extreme gravitational pressure inside the sun, the nuclei are capable of fusing together, giving rise to heavier nuclei. The result is the release of a huge amount of energy: fusion energy.

Since the mid-20th century, scientists have dream of finding a way to generate and control nuclear fusion reactions in order to obtain all this almost inexhaustible energy. But how can we replicate on Earth what the sun does inside naturally due to its extreme gravity? In this talk we will explain how to achieve fusion reactions by heating hydrogen gas up to temperatures of the order of 100 million Celsius degrees (plasma), and howe to contain this plasma in a vessel without any risk of melting. This is at the cutting-edge of science and technology.

The talk will be given by our college from National Fusion Laboratory, Isabel García Cortés, and it will include some didactical gadgets.

Included in the Alovera's CULTURAL PASSPORT

The day of the talk

The talk took place in the Conference Hall of Alovera Library, whith the presence of more than forty attendees, among whom once again we had a large participation of children and high school students.

After a short introduction to our invited speaker, Isabel will delight us with a comprehensive talk about fusion energy and its technology, . as well as the promising production capabilities that it represents. Current state of the art in the development of fusion reactors was explained, both the inertial confinement systems and the magnetic confinement ones. The latter also included a short introduction to Tokamak and Stellarator reactor types.

After the talk, an interesting round of questions took place, where younger people demonstrated to be largely intrigued with plenty of interesting questions.

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