Does Nuclear Fusion Mean Hot Fusion Only?Nuclear fusion is the Holy Grail of energy research. It would deliver massive amounts of clean energy, producing no nuclear waste or carbon emissions, while using a fuel so abundant that it makes up the majority of matter in the universe.It is also incredibly difficult to achieve, simply because the only way we know for nuclear fusion to occur is to replicate the conditions inside stars, with unfathomable pressure and temperature in the tens or hundreds of millions of degrees.This can be achieved using powerful magnetic fields to contain and compress the ultra-hot plasma. Or with hundreds of powerful lasers all synchronized to aim for the same spot. However, all these methods struggle to sustain the fusion reaction for long enough to “pay back” the energy spent initiating nuclear fusion.The complexity of nuclear fusion technology and its potential to solve our energy problem was discussed in further detail in our article “ Nuclear Fusion – The Ultimate Clean Energy Solution on the Horizon .”But what if nuclear fusion could happen in different circumstances, using material science, rare metals, and chemistry instead of high-power plasma physics?This is the promise of “cold fusion,” a field that was long considered unscientific and derided by the scientific community. This was until a scientific paper was published in the prestigious journal Nature, titled “ Observation of neutron emission during acoustic cavitation of deuterated titanium powder .”History Of Cold FusionIn 1989, researchers Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann claimed to have achieved cold fusion. Unfortunately, years of trying to replicate the findings by the scientific community have, so far, been unsuccessful, leading to accusations of poor-quality science or even outright fraud.The following controversy permanently damaged the image of this concept

The Power Of StarsNuclear power has a bad reputation with many people. It is partly justified, with disasters like Chernobyl or Fukushima having stained its reputation.Other people have the opposite opinion, considering that anything short of splitting atoms is a primitive and inefficient way to produce energy. They also point to the low carbon emissions and highly stable baseload power that nuclear energy can provide.It is likely that nuclear energy will be part of our future energy mix , especially as the 4 th generation of nuclear reactors starts to come online , which will be cleaner, safer, and more efficient.However, all of these reactors rely on the concept of nuclear fission. They take very heavy atoms like uranium, thorium, or plutonium, and collect energy when they break into lighter elements.Another form of nuclear energy is nuclear fusion. It relies on taking very light elements and making them fuse into heavier ones.Nuclear fusion is literally what powers the universe, with every star a gigantic nuclear fusion reactor. Every second, the sun consumes 600 million tons of hydrogen

Predicting Energy SystemsVery few topics are as complex and as important as the future energy mix of our civilization. Depending on who you ask, dependency upon fossil fuel is impossible to shake off, or renewables are going to take over at a breakneck pace. The reality is of course complex, and it is very hard to predict the future of energy.In this article, we will look at our current situation, see the few possible scenarios, and more importantly, what economic or technological changes will make one scenario more likely to happen than the other.Where We AreIf there is so far a pattern to our growing energy usage, it is that new energy sources tend to be added to our energy mix, rather than replacing the previous one.For example, we are still using as much, if not more, biomass (mostly wood) than in the 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution. Similarly, coal consumption has mostly only increased over time, on which was added oil, gas, and then hydropower, nuclear, and renewables.This might come as a surprise, considering how much progress in our electricity production renewables seemingly have made. This is due to multiple causes:China, the leader in renewables' new capacity and transition to EVs, is also the leader in coal power plant construction.Most of the primary energy consumption is not used to generate electricity. Instead, most of our energy consumption comes from mobility, heating, and industrial uses like steel production and petrochemicals (production of fertilizer, plastics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, etc.).Population growth and billions leaving extreme poverty meant growing energy consumption, with the cheapest available option often coal