Magnetic fusion development for global warming suppression

Energy shortage and environmental pollution are two critical issues for human beings in the 21st century. There is an urgent need for new sustainable energy to meet the fast growing demand for clean energy. Fusion is one of the few options which may be able to satisfy the requirement for large scale sustainable energy generation and global warming suppression and therefore must be developed as quickly as possible. Fusion research has been carried out for the past 50 years. It is too long to wait for another 50 years to generate electricity by fusion. A much more aggressive approach should be taken with international collaboration towards the early use of fusion energy to meet the urgent needs for energy and global warming suppression. 1. Energy needs in the 21st century Energy shortage and environmental pollution are two critical issues for human beings in the 21st century. There is an urgent need for new sustainable energy to meet the fast growing demand for clean energy. Future requirements of energy before 2050 are shown in figure 1 according to the IEA report. Energy consumption will double within 40 years to lift the world out of poverty. At the moment, 80% of world energy is generated by burning fossil fuels which is the main culprit in global climate change and pollution. It is anticipated that developing countries such as China and India will witness an even greater energy need and more pollution. The Chinese economy has been enjoying 8–9% annual growth for the past 30 years, with 9% in 2008. Aiming at a moderately developed economy for China as the target in 2050, the total energy requirements will increase by a factor of three as shown in figure 2. Meanwhile, China’s resources are poorly balanced. It uses 11% of world coal, 13% hydropower, but only 2.5% of the oil and 1.2% of the gas on the Earth. This means that the Chinese energy consumption structure is and will continue to be mainly based on coal, nearly 70% at the moment and around 50% in 2050. At the same time, China suffers from poor efficiency in turning fissile energy into economic output, just about one-seventh of that in Japan. It is a disturbing picture that the Chinese coal-centred energy structure has already caused many problems, such as pollution and global warming, since China has now become the second largest CO2 producing country. If its energy structure Figure 1. Anticipated energy need before 2050, IEA2005 report: TCE stands for ton coal equivalent. is not significantly changed, the CO2 emission could increase by a factor of two within the next 20 years. This will certainly have a big impact on the global environment. Moreover, coal, oil and gas, as non-reproducible fossil fuels, will not meet our energy demand for long-term sustainable development. China’s growing reliance on imported oil, the pollution and looming water shortages pose major threats to its economic development. However, a change in the energy structure needs massive and sustained efforts. It would take 50 years and tremendous efforts to reduce the contribution of coal to 50% as shown in figure 2, and perhaps 100 years to bring the number down to 24%, the present world average level. To realize the long-term sustainable economic development, it is necessary for China to exploit renewable energy 0029-5515/10/014005+05$30.00 1 © 2010 IAEA, Vienna Printed in the UK Nucl. Fusion 50 (2010) 014005 J. Li et al Anticipation of Energy Demand in China before 2050