Fusing the atom
How do we match the increasing demand for energy in the global economy with reducing carbon emissions? It’s a nightmare equation, using up natural resources while creating more greenhouse gases. One solution may be found in the High Power laser Energy Research (HiPER) project. It aims to demonstrate laser fusion as an environmentally friendly solution to our growing demand for energy.

Replicating the nuclear reactions in the Sun, laser fusion uses seawater as the main fuel to create unlimited energy without releasing greenhouse gases or radioactive waste. With partners from 15 countries, the HiPER team is based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK. The ultimate goal is to build a £500 million prototype power plant.

Like a petrol engine
The concept is similar to a car engine. Professor Mike Dunne, the project director, explains: ‘You've got a bit of fuel and a piston compresses the fuel until it explodes. In laser fusion you are using a laser instead of a piston and rather than burning fuel chemically you are creating a fusion reaction, combining the atom.’

At the moment, VULCAN, the most powerful laser in the world, is at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire and helping to make HiPER possible. By 2013 the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US is expected to demonstrate that laser fusion is viable.

Professor Dunne says, ‘The difference between the NIF approach and the HiPER approach is that NIF is like a diesel engine: you squeeze the atoms so much that they bond together which means you have to do it perfectly. HiPER is like a petrol engine, the petrol just needs a little spark to ignite the petrol. With HiPER you squash the fuel a bit so the laser and the fuel pellet don’t have to be perfect, something the fuel and energy industry can engage with.’

Personal chilli meters?
‘We have applied for a patent. We are currently talking to an Indian company that extracts chilli from chilli peppers and they are quite keen on our potential methodology. There are people who may even want their own personal chilli meter, to test how hot their chilli con carne is!”