Berlin — The German government announced draft plans Thursday to boost domestic research into the development of nuclear fusion, a technology that some hope will provide abundant clean energy in the future, but how those efforts will be funded remains unclear. Will be done, it has been kept open.
Science Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger said that under the proposal, Germany would support all promising fusion technologies now being developed, including laser-based methods that have found recent success in the United States but are widespread in Europe. has not been thoroughly researched.
Another method using powerful magnets has already received significant support from both Germany at its Wendelstein 7-X research reactor in the northern city of Greifswald and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, in southern France.
“We want to address both magnet and laser fusion,” Stark-Watzinger told reporters in Berlin, adding that the plan is to “substantially increase” the 149 million euros ($163 million) that Germany currently spends. provides annually for such research. He declined to be more specific.
“We don’t know to this day which power plant concept will be successful,” he said. “In the end it will be scientists and industry building fusion power plants who will make the decision.”
Stark-Watzinger declined to say whether this could result in funding cuts for ITER, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, but said Germany would stick to its contractual obligations. The project is also under pressure due to the involvement of Russia, which has been one of the few places of sustained cooperation between Moscow and the West since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sybil Günter, scientific director of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, acknowledged that a commercial fusion reactor might not begin operating in Germany until the second half of the century, but insisted that the investment would be worthwhile for future generations.
Germany aims to phase out the use of fossil fuels by 2045 and after years of lobbying by environmentalists closed its last three nuclear power plants that used conventional fission in April.
Stark-Watzinger made it clear that she did not want a return to old-style nuclear reactors, despite calls from some in her moderate Free Democratic Party.
“I would not advocate building any reactors that use this technology again,” she said, adding that nuclear fusion – which works by merging atoms to release energy – could lead to uncontrolled meltdown and longer lifetimes. will not pose the same risk as radioactive waste. come from the splitting of atoms.
“The advantages are clear and we have good conditions here,” he said.
