Luego de la crisis energética, especialmente en Europa, generada por la invasión de Rusia a Ucrania, tal vez la noticia energética más destacada de 2022 fue el hito alcanzado por los Estados Unidos en el desarrollo de la fusión nuclear.
Alguna vez el físico británico Stephen Hawking dijo que la tecnología más prometedora para la humanidad era la fusión nuclear. Y no se equivocó. Este proceso, considerado el santo grial de la industria energética, tiene el potencial de generar energía limpia y casi eterna.
Para tener una idea de su enorme potencial, una sola hora de luz solar tiene el poder suficiente para abastecer de energía a la Tierra por un año entero. ¿Por qué es tan poderosa la luz del Sol? Porque surge de la fusión nuclear.
«La fusión nuclear sería una fuente de energía práctica que nos daría una cantidad inagotable de energía, sin contaminar ni generar calentamiento global», señaló Hawking en una entrevista con la BBC a finales de 2016, un par de años antes de fallecer.
A diferencia de la energía nuclear tradicional, que se genera separando átomos, proceso que se conoce como fisión, la nueva fuente energética se crea uniendo, fusionando, los átomos.
El profesor Moisés Wasserman explica en téminos sencillos en qué consiste la fusión nuclear: “Los núcleos de los átomos están compuestos de neutrones y protones cuya masa aproximada es uno. Casi todos los átomos de hidrógeno tienen solo un protón; por tanto, una masa de uno. Hay dos formas atípicas de hidrógeno, sus isótopos. Uno, el deuterio, tiene una masa de dos, y el otro, el tritio, de tres. Si se fusionan, dan un átomo de helio con masa de cuatro y liberan un neutrón.
“Pero la masa del núcleo de helio es ligeramente inferior a la suma de las que lo originaron. Esa masa no se pierde, se transforma en energía según la famosa ecuación de Einstein E = mc². Es una masa pequeñísima, pero c² es un número muy grande: un 9 seguido de 16 ceros. Entonces, si se fusionan muchos átomos, la cantidad de energía producida es formidable.
“Eso se había demostrado con las bombas termonucleares o bombas de hidrógeno. La más pequeña liberó, en su explosión, una energía equivalente a 4.000 veces la de la bomba de Hiroshima. El problema es cómo liberar esa energía en forma controlada.”
La idea, pues, de la fusión nuclear es reproducir la energía que genera el Sol. Por eso hay cerca de treinta proyectos alrededor del mundo en la carrera por lograr esa meta.
Algunos expertos creen que el proyecto que más posibilidades tiene es el llamado Reactor Experimental Termonuclear Internacional (ITER, por su sigla en inglés), que se construye en Cadarache, sur de Francia, con un presupuesto de US$23.000 millones. Treinta y cinco países colaboran en este experimento científico, que se inició hace más de tres décadas. Los responsables de ITER estiman tener listo un reactor a gran escala para 2050.
El problema
Pero todos los proyectos se enfrentan con el mismo problema: ¿cómo generar más energía de la que se gasta en el proceso?
La fusión se basa en calentar la materia a temperaturas muy altas, que superan los cientos de millones de grados. En ese estado, la materia se llama plasma. A diferencia del Sol, la Tierra no tiene las condiciones para mantener ese plasma caliente. Para lograrlo, se debe aislar el plasma de otras materias. Para ello, se utilizan unas cámaras especiales en forma de anillo llamadas tokamak. El problema es que esas cámaras consumen más energía de la que logran producir.
Por eso, a finales de 2022 fue noticia mundial que científicos de los Estados Unidos lograron producir más energía de la que se gastó en un experimento de fusión, el cual tuvo lugar en el Laboratorio Nacional Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) en California.
Y, aunque satisfechos, los científicos dicen que todavía queda mucho camino por recorrer antes de que la fusión alimente a los hogares con electricidad.
El reto: temperatura y presión
Para conseguir la fusión nuclear, uno de los desafíos es que mantener los elementos juntos requiere grandes cantidades de temperatura y presión.
En el experimento del LLNL, los científicos pusieron una pequeña cantidad de hidrógeno en una cápsula del tamaño de un grano de pimienta. Luego usaron un potente láser de 192 rayos para calentar y comprimir el combustible de hidrógeno.
El láser es tan fuerte que puede calentar la cápsula a 100 millones de grados Celsius, más caliente que el centro del Sol, y comprimirla a más de 100.000 millones de veces la atmósfera de la Tierra.
Bajo estas fuerzas, la cápsula comienza a implosionar sobre sí misma, obligando a los átomos de hidrógeno a fusionarse y liberar energía.
Al anunciar el resultado, el jefe adjunto de programas de defensa en la Administración Nacional de Seguridad Nuclear de EEUU, Marvin Adams, dijo que los láseres del laboratorio habían ingresado 2,05 megajulios (MJ) de energía al objetivo, que luego había producido 3,15 MJ de salida de energía de fusión.
Por su lado, Jeremy P. Chittenden, profesor de física del plasma y codirector del Centro de Estudios de Fusión Inercial del Imperial College de Londres, lo calificó como «un verdadero momento decisivo que demuestra que «el ‘santo grial’ de la fusión puede lograrse».
Sobre la pregunta de cuánto tiempo pasará antes de que podamos ver el uso de la fusión en las centrales eléctricas, el director del LLNL, Kim Budil, dijo que todavía hay obstáculos importantes.
«Con esfuerzos e inversiones concertados, unas pocas décadas de investigación sobre las tecnologías subyacentes podrían poner en condiciones de construir una central eléctrica», precisó.
Uno de los principales obstáculos de la fusión nuclear es reducir los costos y aumentar la producción de energía. Pero una vez se logre, la historia de la Humanidad se partirá en dos, a partir de ese momento se podrá generar energía limpia y de forma casi ilimitada.
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