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There are two methods of producing nuclear energy, fission and fusion. Both methods are explored on this web site.
From an electricity utility perspective nuclear energy obtained via fast neutron fission of heavy elements is the only source of non-fossil energy that can sustainably and economically provide the uninterruptible electric power on demand required to completely displace fossil fuels.
The sun is powered by fusion so renewable energy is actually fusion energy. However, at any particular point on Earth's surface renewable energy is intermittent. Renewable electricity generators require efficient daily and seasonal energy storage and long distance transmission to provide uninterruptible electric power. The cost of making renewable electricity uninterruptible is usually prohibitive. It is often more practical to price electricity at uninterruptible and interruptible rates so that applications that require uninterruptible electricity pay much more per blended kWh than applications that can operate using only interruptible electricity.
Advances in nuclear fission technology have rendered obsolete past concerns about nuclear safety, nuclear fuel usage inefficiency and nuclear waste disposal.
Other than via renewable energy, fusion based electricity generation is difficult and expensive to realize on Earth. For fundamental physical and thermodynamic reasons, as long as fission fuel is available, the cost of a kWhe from Earth based fusion will always be several times the cost of a kWhe from Earth based fission. The main economic opportunity for Earth based fusion is for enhancing breeding of start fuel for fast neutron fission reactors.
It is the intent of this author to eventually produce web pages addressing all of the above mentioned topics.
This web page last updated August 18, 2017.
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