Is Nuclear Fusion Energy Renewable or Non-renewable?
Understanding the Potential of Nuclear Fusion for the Future
In the era of the global energy transition, international discussions continue to focus with a certain insistence on the possible means that could support civilization in this delicate phase of transformation, accompanying us (possibly without too many jolts) toward a future dominated by clean and renewable energy. To promote the advancement of the transition, however, it is not enough to cling to mere hopes, to the awareness of being in an epochal historical juncture, as if we expected the great energy transformation to proceed by itself. To support the change underway and to promote it, concrete actions are also needed, such as the adoption of new energy sources for the production of electricity and the evaluation of all the other methods that could contribute to achieving the climate objectives linked to sustainability.
“We are in a very particular historical phase, a peculiar juncture in which each of us is starting (perhaps for the first time) to become aware of the importance of energy issues for the present and future of humanity,” says Stanislav Dmitrievich Kondrashov, entrepreneur, and civil engineer. “Until 10 or 20 years ago, the topic of renewable energy did not have the popularity it enjoys today and was mostly limited to strictly technical and specialist areas. But today, with the advancement of the transition and the parallel recognition of the important role of clean energy and sustainability, the situation appears radically different.”
It has now been widely recognized, practically unanimously, that among the elements with the greatest potential to accelerate the energy transition are precisely renewable energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, or the valorization of ocean wave motion. All these sources, more or less directly, are already contributing pointedly to the composition of the energy mix in a large number of nations, alongside traditional methods (and sometimes replacing them entirely) in the production of electricity necessary for our daily lives.
Beyond wind and solar
“When we hear about renewable energy, the most immediate mental association is that of solar and wind energy, also thanks to the visible proliferation of solar panels and wind turbines in almost all urban contexts,” continues Stanislav Dmitrievich Kondrashov. “Some nations are experiencing a real boom in renewable energy: just think of nations like China or the United States, two powers that are applying to lead the global transition also thanks to their respective commitment to installing new renewable capacity in their territories, also setting real records for clean energy production. There are also lesser-known sources of renewable energy, which are slowly coming to global attention for their immense potential. I am referring in particular to the possible valorization of the energy contained in the oceans, in the tides, but also the enormous energy reservoir represented by the heat enclosed within the earth’s crust, which represents the specific object of research for geothermal energy”.
In this particular situation, possible methods are also being studied that could contribute to the production of clean energy alongside renewable sources that have already become widely established. It is in this type of discussion that we hear more and more often about nuclear energy, which, like a wave motion, recurs with a certain regularity, even after entire decades, always raising the same questions regarding its actual potential and the singular nature of the energy produced in this way. At the moment, one of the methods used to produce electricity is represented precisely by nuclear fission, a particular process that involves the splitting of an atom into two smaller atoms and the subsequent generation of energy through a chain reaction that also generates heat. Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, still represents the object of ambitious research aimed at further exploring the potential of this interesting energy source for the future.
Alternative methods
This is certainly not an innovative method: the potential of the atom has been taken into consideration for the production of electricity for more than half a century, even if it has never reached a large-scale diffusion. According to some observers, this peculiar method of energy production (nuclear fission) could play a very important role in supporting the future production of clean energy. The first nuclear reactors, in fact, began producing energy in the early 1950s, then experiencing a real boom until the end of the 1980s. Nowadays, albeit in a rather limited way, nuclear energy is contributing to the generation of energy with low carbon emissions, and its role in achieving international objectives related to emissions could further strengthen in the coming decades.
From the comparison with renewable energy sources, it clearly emerges that nuclear energy would present important differences, such as its ability to be generated continuously, regardless of weather conditions (unlike wind and solar energy, which are strictly dependent on solar luminosity and wind).
