The first functioning fusion power plant is to be built in the Free State. But plasma and astrophysicist Harald Lesch has doubts. In the interview he explains why that can’t work.
Frankfurt am Main – Nuclear fusion is touted by some as the energy of the future. In Bavaria, the state government wants to build the world’s first functional nuclear fusion reactor in cooperation with the company Proxima Fusion. After the construction of the research reactor, CSU boss Markus Söder wants to make the energy generated by nuclear fusion usable for Germany.
But is that even possible in such a short time? After all, scientists have been researching star energy for decades. In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau from IPPEN.MEDIA, plasma and astrophysicist Harald Lesch explains why he has serious doubts about the merger plans from Bavaria.
Mr. Lesch, a very simple question to get you started: When can we expect electricity from a nuclear fusion reactor to be available from the socket?
If I remember Sibylle Günter, the general director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, she says: “Certainly not before 2050”. So that would be around 25 years. But when you see how long Stuttgart 21 lasts, how long it takes until something actually happens in Germany, then you have a certain inertia. The second is that an incredible number of technical problems in nuclear fusion have not yet been solved at all. That’s why it’s still taking a long time. The entire nuclear fusion community is looking at the ITER reactor in Cadarache (France, editor’s note). It has been under construction since 2007. We are still a long way from a functioning reactor.
What promising concept is currently available in nuclear fusion?
During nuclear fusion, gaseous plasma must be heated to up to 170 million degrees. This plasma will be enclosed in a very strong magnetic field in the so-called magnetic confinement process, which is usually attempted in ring-shaped systems. These systems will then create the conditions under which small hydrogen nuclei fuse with each other. This releases energy, and this is also the process by which stars fill their energy reservoirs over a long period of time. There are two principles in magnetic confinement, the tokamak and the stellarator. The latter has the advantage that the magnetic field is placed around the plasma from outside. And the stellarator will likely turn out to be the method that will one fine day be realized as a technology. However, this magnetic confinement process has been researched for decades. It is all the more astonishing that it now seems as if we are on the verge of a breakthrough. But this is not a question of a few years, but of several decades.
You won’t be able to build a nuclear fusion reactor with two billion
Now the Bavarian state government, in collaboration with companies, plans to build the first functional fusion reactor by the mid-2030s. What do they know that we don’t know?
I would also like to know what they know that we don’t know. The approval process for the facilities alone will take several years. And we don’t even have a reactor type yet, only a research reactor type so far. It has been under construction in Cadarache for many years and is getting more and more expensive. You won’t be able to build a nuclear fusion reactor with two billion. For ITER in France we are talking about 20 billion euros. I don’t know how the cost will be reduced to a tenth – it must be some magic. But that’s something completely different than actual physics.
What problems do you see when building a fusion reactor in Germany?
The involvement of start-ups leads to a phenomenon that we have never seen in nuclear power plants in general: namely this massive interest in making money. This also means reducing costs. Especially because private capital is in the business. But security always costs money, so we can’t want this kind of cost pressure. As a society, we should demand that these facilities, if they are built, are safe.
If you look at the existing nuclear power plants, they cost between 15 and 25 billion euros. And that’s where you see the problem behind this technology. These are systems with extraordinarily high investment costs. And to get them back in, you need a 24-hour operation. However, our energy system is not designed for this continuous operation. We need systems that we can switch on and off. I also have to note that the fusion plants do not work without radioactive waste, even if it comes with shorter decay times. We have completely different options for offering base loads that are inexpensive, extremely flexible and highly efficient.
Harald Lesch insists on renewables: “It’s very clear where we’re headed”
What alternatives do you mean?
If you look at the figures for the energy revolution that is currently taking place all over the world through wind turbines and photovoltaics, you can see that energy can be generated much more cheaply through mass production. If you think about photovoltaics, you have the modules, an inverter, a few cables, and then you have to connect it to the grid somehow. The collapse in prices for PV, wind power and, most recently, batteries clearly shows where we are headed. Namely towards renewable energies. Large machines, such as fusion power plants, no longer fit into the global energy mix.
Why then doesn’t Germany consistently focus on renewables, but instead pushes for technologies such as nuclear fusion?
Germany had already advanced photovoltaic technology. But then we gave it up and China now makes money from it. We gave up wind power and that’s how everyone else makes money today. And we also pushed and abandoned battery development. So we initiated several major technological developments, but were unable to advance subsidies in a way that kept the technologies, jobs and value creation with us. My impression is that the next attempt at nuclear fusion is now being made, according to the motto “the next big shit in town”. But if you want to build a functioning reactor with two billion, you believe in miracle technologies that, in my opinion, don’t exist.
Nevertheless, let’s allow ourselves the thought experiment: Bavaria manages to do it and builds the first functional fusion reactor. What would this mean for energy security in the world?
Nothing. Look, all over the world, nuclear energy has a contribution of less than ten percent. That’s nothing at all. In view of the renewable energies, in combination with batteries, the use of nuclear power is actually a non-starter technology. That is over because it produces incredibly high costs and risks. Remember: In Germany we have 1,700 castor containers with radioactive waste on the surface waiting to go to a final storage facility. This is no longer discussed at all.
The electricity that comes from the socket cannot be distinguished from whether it comes from nuclear fusion, a PV system or a wind turbine. As long as we have enough systems with the appropriate battery storage, plus some gas power plants for controllable capacity during dark periods, we have a wonderful energy system. This needs to be expanded, used and made resilient instead of starting with another technology whose development is literally up in the air.