The promise of fusion energy is cheap and abundant power for the entire planet.
One of them is the production of fuel, which requires vast amounts of enriched lithium.
The effect the research has on nuclear fusion might be enormous.
The Sun, like other stars, is a natural fusion reactor, where stellar nucleosynthesis transforms lighter elements into heavier elements with the release of energy.© NASA Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres and Yohkoh Legacy data Archive.
The simplest method of doing fusion on Earth instead of space involves tritium and deuterium isotopes.
Tritium is rare and radioactive so reactors currently breed it on demand to generate energy.
They breed the tritium by bombarding lithium isotopes with neutrons.
Most lithium on the planet, more than 90% of it, is lithium-7.
Breeding tritium works way more efficiently with the ultra-rare lithium-6.
This did not go so well.
Mercury is a toxic nightmare substance thats difficult to clean up.
Cleaning up the remnants of the environmental disaster is amajor projectfor Oak Ridge National Labs current residents.
As it ran water through this membrane it noticed something strange: it was really good at isolating Lithium-6.
The team decided to see if it could harvest Lithium-6 from mixtures of Lithium isotopes without mercury.
Our approach uses the essential working principles of lithium-ion batteries and desalination technologies, Banerjee said.
Banerjee this could lead to a massive change in how fuel is developed for fusion generators.
It also doesnt require a massive re-design of the existing reactors.
Our work outlines a path to overcoming a key supply chain issue for fusion.
A lot of people are banking on fusion being the path towards cheap and abundant energy.
My entire life Ive heard that the breakthrough that will make it real is just around the corner.
Its been a constant refrain thats become a bit of a joke.
Just last year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistsasked if fusionmight be forever the energy of tomorrow.
But Banerjee was hopeful.
Despite the incredible challenges, fusion is too big of a prize to give up on, he said.
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