07/18/2018 / By Ethan Huff
Is it really possible to capture the energy released during nuclear fusion reactions and turn it into an unlimited power supply for the entire world? A startup energy company based out of Washington state says it is, having recently put forth claims that it successfully discovered the “holy grail” of nuclear fusion.
AGNI Energy, headed by 25-year-old Demitri Hopkins, is calling it “a paradigm shift in power” – a newfangled “beam-target” blueprint the company came up with that supposedly achieves nuclear fusion far more efficiently than any previous iterations. Mimicking the activity of the sun, which is the universe’s most prominent natural fusion reactor, the new technology represents a major breakthrough that could forever change the way we all obtain energy.
It basically works by fusing together two lighter atomic nuclei into a single heavier nucleus, generating an energy release. Unlike nuclear fission, it produces very little nuclear waste while producing up to four times as much energy – a win-win that could make existing nuclear energy production technologies obsolete.
The concept has been around for a long time, but nobody has been able to develop a workable fusion reactor to make it happen – until now. AGNI says that, for the first time ever, it is possible to produce a positive energy balance from fusion reactions, meaning more energy can be captured from the reaction than is required to initiate the reaction.
Using a combination of both electric and magnetic fields, Hopkins says his company will utilize a groundbreaking method of fusion production in which a beam of ions is focused onto a solid fuel target. This beam will travel a very short path in order to reach its target, and will not need to be controlled for very long before triggering fusion – meaning it requires very little energy to make it all happen.
“AGNI is expected to achieve 16 million times the efficiency of coal, 10 times the efficiency of nuclear fission, (and) produce no waste and zero emissions,” a company spokesman told the media.
If a success, the technology would render practically all other forms of energy production obsolete. But the question remains: Is it for real? After all, many others have made similar claims about nuclear fusion “breakthroughs” in the past, only to have them fizzle out in the end.
Back in 1989, for instance, United States scientists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons claimed to have developed a technology known as “cold fusion” that involved generating nuclear fusion at room temperature. It apparently worked in their initial tests, but couldn’t be replicated in later ones.
The American Physical Society later declared the claims to be a preeminent example of what’s known as “pathological science,” or the misleading of the public based on false claims derived from subjective and non-replicable scientific testing.
It’s a strong possibility that AGNI’s latest claims represent yet another example of this type of pathological science – a narrative of promising breakthroughs based on false hope and wishful thinking. There’s also a chance that it’s real this time, and that the entire world could very soon change based on these developments.
Keep in mind that the U.S. Navy actually declared that what Fleischmann and Pons discovered several decades back was, indeed, real. It’s just a matter of making it real in practical, replicable terms, which remains to be seen.
To keep up with the latest news in technological energy breakthroughs that have the potential to change the world for the better, visit Electricity.news.
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