Fusion power is a promising source of clean and sustainable energy for future generations. It is essentially a carbon-free energy source, and the raw materials for fusion are almost limitless on Earth. Here are some details about fusion power:

Ingredients or Materials

• The fuels considered for fusion power have all been light elements like the isotopes of hydrogen—protium, deuterium, and tritium.
• The deuterium and helium-3 reaction requires helium-3, an isotope of helium so scarce on Earth that it would have to be mined extraterrestrially or produced by other nuclear reactions.
• Ultimately, researchers hope to adopt the protium–boron-11 reaction, because it does not directly produce neutrons, although side reactions can.
• In a fusion reactor, the concept is that neutrons generated from the D-T fusion reaction will be absorbed in a blanket containing lithium which surrounds the core. The lithium is then transformed into tritium (which is used to fuel the reactor) and helium.

Positive

• Fusion is among the most environmentally friendly sources of energy. There are no CO2 or other harmful atmospheric emissions from the fusion process.
• Fusion on the other hand does not create any long-lived radioactive nuclear waste. A fusion reactor produces helium, which is an inert gas. It also produces and consumes tritium within the plant in a closed circuit. Tritium is radioactive (a beta emitter) but its half-life is short. It is only used in low amounts so, unlike long-lived radioactive nuclei, it cannot produce any serious danger.
• Fusion power is a good choice as the base load energy in the future with many advantages, such as inexhaustibility of resources, inherent safety, no greenhouse gas emissions, and no long-lived radioactive waste.

Negative

• The neutron flux expected in a commercial D-T fusion reactor is about 100 times that of fission power reactors, posing problems for material design.
• The activation of the reactor’s structural material by intense neutron fluxes is another issue. This strongly depends on what solution for blanket and other structures has been adopted, and its reduction is an important challenge for future fusion experiments.

Materials

• The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority published the UK Fusion Materials Roadmap 2021–2040, focusing on five priority areas, with a focus on tokamak family reactors.
• The topic of materials and component development is one crucial part of the puzzle required to make fusion a reality.
• The blanket must be thick enough (about 1 metre) to slow down the high-energy (14 MeV) neutrons. The kinetic energy of the neutrons is absorbed by the blanket, causing it to heat up.

In summary, fusion power uses light elements like the isotopes of hydrogen as fuel, and researchers hope to adopt the protium–boron-11 reaction in the future. Fusio...