The University of California is dishing out $8 million in grants across multiple campuses in order to continue its fusion energy research. This includes one project that utilizes artificial diamonds.
As reported by UC Santa Cruz, researchers with the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics will receive $550,000 in funding to develop advanced diamond-based sensors to monitor intense radiation in future fusion energy reactors.
These sensors could be a major step towards safe, commercial fusion power. Previous sensors made from silicon have been unable to withstand extreme conditions inside radioactive environments. SCIPP has now partnered with Advent Diamond to provide real-time diagnostic tools that can withstand extreme conditions where silicon fails.
Synthetic diamonds have been noted for their ability to endure extreme heat and even intense radiation levels. By constructing sensors with these diamonds, physicists at SCIPP may be able to unlock a future generation of fusion energy technology.
"Advent is one of the few companies in the world that can do the sort of boutique R&D needed to develop diamond sensors as nuclear particle detectors," said Bruce Schumm, SCIPP faculty member, per UC Santa Cruz.
"Dean Bryan Gaensler's willingness to seed this work has at last enabled a collaboration that we have sought to get off the ground for several years now — in a direction that inspired a significant part of our thinking about diagnostics for commercial fusion power plants," added Schumm.
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Fusion power offers the potential for an abundant source of clean, safe, and reliable energy with minimal long-lived radioactive waste. The fusion process can also eliminate carbon pollution common to traditional energy production, making the air cleaner for humans and the environment.
Diversifying clean energy sources, including fusion power, could help lower their power bills, reduce families' carbon footprints, and curb rising global temperatures.
However, the massive costs and unproven commercial viability of the technology have prevented fusion energy from becoming a reality. Simone Mazza, an assistant research scientist at SCIPP, noted the importance of the UC Initiative for Fusion Energy program and the grant money that may bring fusion energy to the forefront.
"Despite significant progress, important questions pertinent to engineering and design challenges remain before fusion energy can successfully transition from the laboratory to a commercially viable power plant," Mazza said, per UC Santa Cruz. "To address these challenges, a coordinated effort is warranted between academia, national laboratories, and industry."
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