Can We Make a Star on Earth? Horizon


Can We Make a Star on Earth?

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This programme contains some strong language.

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The sun is 93 million miles away.

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And yet it can illuminate the surface of the Earth.

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You can fit a million Earths inside.

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The surface temperature is 6,000 degrees.

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At its core, it's 15 million degrees.

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It loses 4 million tons of mass every second.

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That mass is turned into energy and we feel it as heat.

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The sun is powered by the strongest force in the universe.

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And, as a physicist, I believe that our long term future depends on us

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learning to do the same.

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That's why, across the world, teams of engineers and scientists

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are stepping into the unknown.

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You are looking inside the Star Chamber.

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We're gonna discharge about 26 million amps.

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That little ball starts collapsing at a million miles an hour.

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They're all united in a single quest.

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So, it's about to get dangerous, so we'd better take off.

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It's the greatest engineering challenge that we have yet faced -

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to build a machine that will make a star on Earth.

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Sunrise, dawn. That moment when night becomes day that had

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an immense significance for our ancestors.

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The sun sets the rhythm for life on Earth.

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Each day it returns and the world awakens.

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I think in one way we lost that sense of

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significance of the sunrise in our modern, electrically-lit world.

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But, in another way, that's been replaced

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by modern science's understanding

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of the sun as a violent, majestic and massive object.

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And...as is often the way when you understand the true nature

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of something, then that's all the more reason to revere it.

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The sun bathes our planet in energy.

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It's so powerful that in just one second its light

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could supply the United States with energy for a million years.

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And hidden at its heart is the power source -

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all 385 million, million, million, million watts of it.

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It's a power source that lights up

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every one of the 100 billion stars in our galaxy.

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So the universe is awash

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with effectively limitless amounts of energy.

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Then you have to ask the question, is there a way of producing

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the energy that you need to run all this for everyone in the world,

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in a way that doesn't damage the planet?

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As a physicist, there is a way. In principle, there's a way.

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It's the same way that stars produce energy. It's nuclear fusion.

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Nuclear fusion is nature's power source, a process that has

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kept our sun burning without fail for five billion years and counting.

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The question I want to ask in this film is, is it possible that fusion

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is a power source for the future?

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Can a nuclear fusion power station be constructed? And can we do it

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sufficiently quickly that we can use it to address

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the pressing and serious energy crisis that we've got today?

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It sounds like science fiction.

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But in the heart of Oxfordshire, they've been busy lighting

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little stars for over 30 years.

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-So, what's the advantage of fusion?

-Well, the chief advantage of fusion

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is probably it doesn't produce carbon dioxide, so no global warming gasses.

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'The Joint European Taurus, or JET,

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'is the world's largest experimental fusion reactor where each day

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'they initiate this beautifully simple nuclear reaction.'

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So it seems to me that, in principle,

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we have the ideal energy source.

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It couldn't be better, could it?

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It had one downside, that it's very hard to do.

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You had to create the conditions that are 10 times hotter than

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-the centre of the sun to initiate these reactions.

-HAD, you said?

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But, right, we've done it -

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in the machine that you're about to look at.

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Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

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There it goes.

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'Scientists have learned how to create and hold star matter,

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'a cocktail of gasses heated to 100 million degrees.

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'For a moment, a little piece of the sun springs into life on earth.'

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It's amazing. So we're looking at the conditions,

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ten times the conditions that are present in the centre of the sun?

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They're ten times the temperature of the sun?

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-Absolutely.

-In that reactor?

-It's incredible

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and it goes on for all those seconds, you know, it's impressive.

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The remarkable thing is it seems routine.

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I'm sure there's a lot of work gone into making it routine.

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-Yeah.

-That's my sense of this.

-As people have got used to it.

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Of course, there are times when we actually put the real fuel in there

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and a shot like that will be producing lots of fusion power.

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Very exciting, when that happened.

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To this day, JET holds the world record for fusion power.

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Yet, despite decades of research and this fleeting glimpse of fusion,

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no electricity will ever make it from here to the grid.

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Learning how to produce useful power from fusion

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remains beyond our capabilities.

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One thing we do know is that, in nature,

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fusion only occurs in one place -

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right in the centre of stars.

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Vast celestial power houses, like our sun.

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The road to understanding the sun has been long.

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And it all began with a remarkable piece of deduction.

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So, how could you begin to find out what the sun's made of?

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I mean, you can't go there.

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It's a long long way away and it'd be a bit hot when you arrived.

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Well, actually, the story began back in the 1660s

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with the British physicist Isaac Newton.

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He used one of these, a prism, to look at the light from the sun.

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What Newton found is that if you look at light through a prism

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then it splits up into its component colours. It makes a rainbow.

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Now, at the time, Newton didn't appreciate the full significance

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of his discovery, or at least the usefulness of it.

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Through the 18th and 19th centuries, chemists and physicists

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looked at the light in real detail.

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And what they noticed was that the spectrum isn't continuous.

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It has pieces missing, it has black lines through it.

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This was a puzzle. Why was some of the sun's light missing?

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The answer is beautifully simple.

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Each chemical element in the sun absorbs light

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to produce its own unique pattern of black lines,

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known as absorption lines, in the solar spectrum.

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A kind of fingerprint for every element in the universe.

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That leaves you with an interesting possibility.

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If you look at the light from the sun and you look

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where the black lines are,

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then you can deduce exactly what elements are present in the sun.

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And today, from many precision observations of the light

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from the sun, using just this technique,

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we know that the sun is 75% hydrogen,

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24% helium and about 1% the heavier elements that make up the universe.

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Scientists had discovered what the sun and stars were made of.

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But they were no closer to figuring out how something

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made of the two lightest elements in the universe -

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hydrogen and helium - could emit such vast quantities of energy.

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Progress came with the discovery of one of

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the most famous equations in science.

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Now, it took until 1905 and Einstein

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for the key to the sun's energy source to be revealed.

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The equation E=MC2.

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Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

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Speed of light squared, immense number.

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It's got 16 noughts after it.

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This huge number means

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that only a small amount of mass contains vast amounts of energy.

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Einstein had uncovered a remarkable facet of nature.

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Mass is just an incredibly condensed form of energy.

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Imagine I took a dollar bill,

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that's about a gram, and converted that into pure energy.

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That is the mass lost in a hydrogen bomb.

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So there's one hydrogen bomb's worth of energy in every dollar bill.

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When Einstein first wrote down his famous equation, E=MC2,

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it wasn't realised at first that that was the key

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to understanding the power of the sun.

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It took another 15 years or so

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for the British scientist, Arthur Eddington, to...

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well, what seems like put two and two together.

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But that would be disrespectful to Eddington.

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He noticed a result that had again been known for many years.

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That if you take four hydrogen nuclei,

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like these rocks,

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and you can stick them together to make one thing, to make helium.

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And it was known that the helium weighed less.

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It was less massive than the four hydrogen nuclei on their own.

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Eddington suggested that the sun shines by combining hydrogen

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into helium, releasing the missing mass as energy.

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And in fact we now know that the sun loses

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about 4 million tons of mass every second as energy.

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Now, of course it wasn't clear at the time that Eddington was correct.

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But correct he turned out to be.

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What he'd actually discovered was the process that came to be known

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as nuclear fusion.

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When Eddington had suggested that fusion might be the process

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that powers the sun, it was pointed out to him that actually

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the centre of the sun was not hot enough for fusion to happen,

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as physicists understood the process at that time.

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What you actually need is an understanding of quantum mechanics

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and that didn't come until later.

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But Eddington was so sure of himself

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that he said, "To those who suggest that the centre of a star is not hot

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"enough for fusion to take place, I say go and find a hotter place."

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Which is a very polite, British way of saying, "Go to hell."

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Of course, no hotter place was found

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and Eddington's model for solar fusion was adopted and refined.

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But it left a big question -

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how on earth do you light a star in the first place?

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A drive-in movie theatre.

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Last time I saw one of these was in Grease

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with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

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To find an answer, I've arranged to meet a Californian astronomer

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called Alex Filippenko who's going to take me back 13.5 billion years

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to a time before the stars ever existed.

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Remarkably, astronomers have been able to collect light from

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this time, just 380,000 years after the universe began at the Big Bang.

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Oh, wow. Here we're seeing the launch of WMAP.

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'A satellite called WMAP

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'was able to take a snapshot of the universe in its infancy.'

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The different colours, what do they represent?

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Yeah. The reds and blues

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signify slightly hotter than average and cooler than average regions.

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And those correspond with slight differences in density.

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'In the denser regions, the primeval constituents of the universe were

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'drawn together by gravity.'

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So the universe was, at the time of the WMAP image,

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-was hydrogen, helium?

-Hydrogen and helium, that's it.

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Because during the Big Bang temperatures and pressures

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weren't high enough for very long to produce the heavier elements.

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'Over time the regions of hot, dense hydrogen and helium clumped together

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'to create huge stellar nurseries - ideal places for stars to form.'

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These slight little variations in the density

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led to regions that started collapsing, clouds of gas

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that started collapsing to form clusters of galaxies and galaxies.

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And then, within them, stars could form as well.

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'The first generation of stars lit up,

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'initiating fusion and bringing an end to the universe's Dark Age.'

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That would be a star there, would it, beginning to form?

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Yeah, that's right. You're seeing clumps of hydrogen and helium

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and then gravity, the great sculptor of the universe,

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causes these things to collapse, forming stars like this one.

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'Many of these first stars were giants,

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'hundreds of times more massive than the sun.'

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'They burnt their hydrogen fuel quickly

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'and died in supernova explosions.

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'They were the early chemical factories of the universe.

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'From just hydrogen and helium in the beginning, generations of stars

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'have created every element we're familiar with today.'

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The stars are the fusion reactors

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that produced the heavy elements of which we are made.

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I think it's a wonderful thought, because I look at my hand and

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that is... Well, it's red because there is iron in it and it's made

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-of carbon and oxygen and that stuff.

-You're made of star stuff.

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Quite literally the heavy elements in your body -

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anything other than hydrogen and helium

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was produced inside of stars billions of years ago.

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We really are children of the stars,

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created by the simplest of nuclear reactions - fusion.

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And now that we understand this remarkable process

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it offers us a tantalizing prospect.

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If we could reproduce the energy generating process

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at the heart of the sun, if we could build a star on Earth,

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then our energy generation problems would be over for ever.

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For now, though, we continue to rely almost entirely on our sun.

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I suppose in a way our civilization runs off batteries.

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Over billions of years the sunlight has been captured

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by stuff like this. Then it's decayed away.

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And in places like this, on the San Andreas Fault,

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the geological conditions are just right to cook this

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into oil that we can then pump out of the ground and burn

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and take that condensed sunlight and use it to power our civilization.

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The energy from fossil fuels like coal, gas and the oil here

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in California have provided the power that built the modern world.

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All of it the result of biology and

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chemistry made possible thanks to the great fusion reactor in the sky.

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We thought we'd got lucky.

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We'd found a seemingly endless supply of energy.

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Here in the heart of oil country, I hooked up with physicist

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Rich Muller to chew over our dependence on the black stuff.

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I love this.

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What is our love affair with this substance, oil?

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Well, you know, I don't think of it

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so much as a love affair as a marriage.

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And a somewhat unhappy marriage.

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And we seek a divorce but the divorce is going to be expensive.

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It really is a very remarkable substance.

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It has enormous energy, enormous energy.

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So much more than even TNT or dynamite.

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It doesn't leave behind any residue.

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Unlike coal, you don't have to clear the ashes out of your car.

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All it does it is spew off this, what we used to call harmless gas,

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carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.

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In terms of energy, it's got more energy than TNT and natural gas.

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More energy than these shotgun shells

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by a factor of almost a thousand.

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The incredible energy density of oil is part of the reason

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why fusion is not yet here.

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It's not simply that making the star is too difficult.

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It's also that we haven't had to

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because the sun has given us the black gold.

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It's such a wonderful thing.

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Only problem is... one, we're short of it.

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And so it leads to war in the Mid-East.

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And the second problem is, it does put out carbon dioxide

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and that very likely leads to global warming.

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GUNSHOT

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This is my new sport, man. I like this.

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Most of us on this planet, as we sit in our air-conditioned hotel rooms

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or at home watching TV, are still burning fossil fuels.

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As a result, the carbon dioxide we are releasing

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continues to warm the planet.

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Quite how this will change our world,

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and what this means for our civilisation, no one yet knows.

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But what's strange is even though we do know our demand for energy

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is unbalancing the climate, the world cannot agree

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on how our species should power the homes,

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factories and farms of the future.

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In search of an answer I've come to San Francisco,

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to the headquarters of a wind power research company,

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to meet its chief engineer.

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I met Saul Griffith about a year ago, and I wanted to talk to him

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in this film because he's one of the few people I've met

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that takes the emotion out of the energy debate.

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He just speaks in raw facts and figures.

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And he's got an office in a control tower on a disused military base

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which is...

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Here we are on this finite

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little bowl that's spinning through the universe.

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There is a limit to how much power per square metre we can get.

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We shouldn't be afraid of that limit,

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but we should certainly try to operate within it.

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Let's as quickly as possible

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get the debate about energy away from emotional and qualitative and polar bear issues,

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and to a very rational,

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"what do we have to do, how do we get this done?"

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Saul's response was to begin at home.

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He wanted to understand exactly how much energy he uses.

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I'm a bicycle commuter,

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I use public transport, I run a wind energy company.

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I should be a good human, right?

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But I didn't actually know, numerically, if I was good.

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So I counted up all the energy my lifestyle uses.

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I can tell you the amount of power it takes

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to have the New York Times delivered,

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how much power it takes to have a hot shower.

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I know how much power I use flying around the place

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to talk to people like you.

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I know how much power I use driving. And I was a little shocked.

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I actually use more than the average American.

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I'm one of the planet fuckers. So I am right now a hypocrite.

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Here I am talking to you about all of this,

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but I'm using way more than the average US person.

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That means that this halo of light behind me you see

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is not actually genius.

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That's the 300 light bulbs that are burning constantly

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24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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That's how much power my lifestyle uses.

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The average American uses 11.4 kilowatts.

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The global average is 2.2 kilowatts.

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Which means the world's total energy consumption

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is currently around 13 terawatts, or 13 million million watts.

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To understand the scale of the problem, I posed a question to Saul.

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What would it take to share the world's energy equally,

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and give all six billion of us five kilowatts each?

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A global total of 30 terawatts.

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And let's see if we can achieve this, without fossil fuels, by 2035.

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Let's shoot for this morally pleasing level.

0:24:230:24:25

This one.

0:24:250:24:27

We'll call this the Brian Agenda.

0:24:270:24:29

Well, yeah, because the Brian Agenda is to allow everybody on the Earth

0:24:290:24:34

to live a lifestyle approximately like mine.

0:24:340:24:38

'In the west, we'd have to get used to using a lot less.

0:24:400:24:43

'But in the developing world,

0:24:430:24:44

'this extra energy could provide roads and schools and hospitals,

0:24:440:24:48

'everything we take for granted.'

0:24:480:24:51

So let's go with that. It's hugely optimistic, but let's do it.

0:24:510:24:54

Let's go to five kilowatts.

0:24:540:24:56

'The next step is to figure out just how much clean energy

0:24:560:24:59

'that is for the entire world.'

0:24:590:25:01

Thirty terawatts of energy

0:25:010:25:04

has to come from some new clean source or sources.

0:25:040:25:08

OK, 30 terawatts, 25 years.

0:25:080:25:11

I'm totally behind the Brian Agenda.

0:25:110:25:13

So, what are the implications of my eponymous plan

0:25:150:25:18

to make the world a more equitable place?

0:25:180:25:21

How about generating a sixth of our power, five terawatts,

0:25:250:25:28

from conventional nuclear?

0:25:280:25:30

So we need 5,000 nuclear reactors in 25 years.

0:25:300:25:34

That's two and a half full size nuclear reactors every week

0:25:340:25:39

for the next 25 years.

0:25:390:25:41

Every three minutes you need to install

0:25:410:25:43

a full size three megawatt wind turbine.

0:25:430:25:45

That's gonna be a couple of percent of the land area of the world

0:25:450:25:48

that has wind turbines on it.

0:25:480:25:49

Solar at 10 terawatts, 250 square metres of solar cell every second -

0:25:490:25:56

second after second after second after second for the next 25 years.

0:25:560:25:59

Biofuels, two terawatts. This one looks a little scary.

0:25:590:26:03

That's something like four Olympic swimming pools

0:26:030:26:06

full of genetically engineered bacteria,

0:26:060:26:08

every second for the next 25 years.

0:26:080:26:10

And so on.

0:26:100:26:12

It's becoming clear that freeing ourselves of our fossil fuel addiction,

0:26:120:26:16

let alone creating a more equitable world,

0:26:160:26:19

is gonna require a massive global effort.

0:26:190:26:22

And we haven't even factored in the inevitable population growth.

0:26:220:26:25

So, look, this is possible to realise the Brian Agenda.

0:26:280:26:32

But it's a pretty radical programme.

0:26:320:26:35

This is like the re-tooling of manufacture for World War II,

0:26:350:26:39

except Britain, Germany, Japan and America

0:26:390:26:42

are playing on the same team.

0:26:420:26:43

And every week that passes by, when the world fails to build these alternative sources,

0:26:430:26:49

means Saul's numbers just keep on getting bigger.

0:26:490:26:53

Could fusion power help?

0:26:530:26:55

Unfortunately, right now for nuclear fusion, it's a question mark.

0:26:550:26:59

We don't know whether it works.

0:26:590:27:01

But the sensible thing would be to increase investment?

0:27:010:27:03

Certainly if we nail fusion,

0:27:030:27:05

that looks like the Get Out Of Jail Free card for humanity.

0:27:050:27:08

The aspiration to raise everybody up to a minimum standard of energy use,

0:27:130:27:19

that is comparable with the energy use in the west,

0:27:190:27:24

is not beyond the realms of possibility.

0:27:240:27:26

But a global consensus

0:27:280:27:30

that we have to stop our destructive use of fossil fuels, is emerging.

0:27:300:27:34

What I'm not clear about is whether fusion is probably so far away

0:27:360:27:42

that it won't have an impact on the first phase of the energy crisis,

0:27:420:27:45

the phase we're in now.

0:27:450:27:47

So do we need to focus our investment efforts

0:27:470:27:50

on building more efficient power stations, building solar and wind?

0:27:500:27:55

Or, if we are convinced that fusion will work

0:27:550:27:58

and the technological difficulties can be overcome

0:27:580:28:02

on a very short timescale, then do we really go for it?

0:28:020:28:04

Do we say we're gonna spend 10 or 100 times more R&D money,

0:28:040:28:10

worldwide, on fusion now?

0:28:100:28:12

I believe we must at least try as hard as we possibly can.

0:28:130:28:17

After all, we have already built a star, but for wholly different ends.

0:28:170:28:23

During World War II,

0:28:330:28:34

a generation of the finest scientific and engineering minds

0:28:340:28:39

were brought together in the New Mexico desert

0:28:390:28:42

to work on the top secret Manhattan Project.

0:28:420:28:45

This is it, the place where the nuclear age began, the Trinity site,

0:28:560:29:04

where the world's first nuclear bomb was exploded, July 16th 1945.

0:29:040:29:09

It's where the power of the nucleus was unlocked.

0:29:090:29:12

In just five years,

0:29:190:29:21

they'd learned how to access the power of the nucleus

0:29:210:29:23

by splitting nuclei apart.

0:29:230:29:26

They created a fission bomb.

0:29:260:29:29

They soon realised that they could release even more energy

0:29:310:29:34

if they could fuse the nuclei and the fuel together.

0:29:340:29:38

Thing is, the fuel is positively charged.

0:29:390:29:42

And that means that as it comes closer together, it repels away.

0:29:420:29:47

What you're fighting is electro-magnetism.

0:29:470:29:49

But if the nuclei can be brought close enough together,

0:29:490:29:52

against the repulsive electro-magnetic force,

0:29:520:29:55

another force of nature, the strong nuclear force,

0:29:550:30:00

will take over and bind the nuclei together.

0:30:000:30:03

Fusion.

0:30:030:30:06

So what you need to do is get these things moving fast enough

0:30:060:30:09

that they get close enough for the strong nuclear force to kick in,

0:30:090:30:12

short range, to lock them together.

0:30:120:30:14

Now, getting things moving fast is another way of saying

0:30:140:30:17

you need to make them hot.

0:30:170:30:19

That's what temperature is, the measure of the speed of the fuel.

0:30:190:30:22

And the bomb builders had just the tool.

0:30:240:30:27

They would use the incredible temperatures and densities of a fission bomb

0:30:270:30:31

to overcome the electromagnetic force and achieve fusion.

0:30:310:30:36

NEWSREEL MUSIC

0:30:390:30:41

ORIGINAL ANNOUNCER: This is the first full scale test

0:30:430:30:46

of a hydrogen device.

0:30:460:30:48

If the reaction goes, we're in the thermo-nuclear era!

0:30:480:30:51

Just eight years after entering the nuclear age at Trinity,

0:30:550:30:58

they were at the brink of lighting the first ever star on Earth.'

0:30:580:31:03

SITE PA: Now 30 seconds to zero time.

0:31:040:31:07

Ivy Mike, as the test was known,

0:31:070:31:10

was the first full-scale attempt to detonate a fusion or hydrogen bomb.

0:31:100:31:16

One of the scientists who witnessed the birth of the nuclear age

0:31:160:31:20

is Sterling Colgate.

0:31:200:31:22

We can simulate what goes on in a star.

0:31:220:31:27

In... It isn't quite the laboratory, but at the test range,

0:31:270:31:31

or some exquisitely beautiful atoll that we blow all to shit,

0:31:310:31:37

if you don't mind the word.

0:31:370:31:39

Cos it's just ghastly what all of that did!

0:31:390:31:42

And it's a lesson for the whole world.

0:31:420:31:44

Never, never, never let that happen again.

0:31:440:31:47

Five, four, three, two, one, zero!

0:31:470:31:52

They had unleashed the most powerful force in nature.

0:31:570:32:01

This happens in the stars, it happens in our sun.

0:32:010:32:05

If it didn't, we wouldn't be here.

0:32:050:32:07

And so you can't turn the clock back.

0:32:070:32:09

You can't deny the physics.

0:32:090:32:11

It's there. What we have to do is deny the use of a fusion bomb,

0:32:110:32:17

a hydrogen bomb as it's called,

0:32:170:32:20

in any anger whatsoever.

0:32:200:32:25

We absolutely have to make a massive commitment as a culture

0:32:250:32:29

that this can never, never happen.

0:32:290:32:32

However we also need to take that knowledge

0:32:320:32:36

and use it to generate power.

0:32:360:32:38

And make the power that we need to go on.

0:32:380:32:40

Future lab is completely gone.

0:32:410:32:44

Nothing there but water and what appears to be a deep crater.

0:32:440:32:49

Whatever you think about the power you can extract from the atomic nucleus,

0:32:490:32:54

the simple fact, the scientific fact is,

0:32:540:32:57

there is no greater power source in the universe.

0:32:570:33:00

It's the power source that powers the sun,

0:33:000:33:03

it's the power source that powers the stars

0:33:030:33:06

and it can be the power source that powers our civilisation.

0:33:060:33:11

What's needed is a Manhattan Project type effort

0:33:110:33:17

to unlock the immense energy store of the atomic nucleus.

0:33:170:33:24

But this time for peaceful purposes.

0:33:240:33:26

Today, fusion scientists continue to face the same challenge.

0:33:260:33:32

They must overcome the electromagnetic force

0:33:320:33:35

by creating incredibly high temperatures and pressures,

0:33:350:33:39

but in a much more controlled way.

0:33:390:33:42

Currently, the world spends only £1 billion a year on the problem.

0:33:440:33:50

In the UK, we spent more money on ringtones last year

0:33:500:33:54

than we contributed to the global fusion efforts.

0:33:540:33:58

You've got to ask yourself whether our civilization

0:33:580:34:01

has got its priorities right.

0:34:010:34:03

Much of fusion funding still goes into bomb research.

0:34:060:34:10

But these days, the demolition of South Pacific islands

0:34:100:34:14

is out of fashion.

0:34:140:34:16

Instead, the generals hire the world's most powerful bomb simulator.

0:34:160:34:21

Well, welcome, Brian. This is the Z Machine.

0:34:220:34:25

Located on a high security base just outside Albuquerque,

0:34:250:34:29

the Z Machine, as it's known, is run by John Porter.

0:34:290:34:34

So, this is the largest pulse power device in the world.

0:34:340:34:38

It's also the largest X-ray generator in the world.

0:34:380:34:41

So in about an hour we're going to discharge about 26 million amps

0:34:410:34:46

through a little thimble-sized cylinder of wires.

0:34:460:34:51

This is, you know, 100 times bigger

0:34:510:34:52

than the instantaneous power consumption of the United States,

0:34:520:34:55

at least.

0:34:550:34:57

So, again, just phenomenal amounts.

0:34:570:34:59

But for very short periods of time.

0:34:590:35:01

With all this power at its disposal,

0:35:010:35:04

the Z Machine is able to recreate the conditions inside an H bomb.

0:35:040:35:08

And so at this point, the conductors are inside a vacuum.

0:35:080:35:12

And then they're converging all to the axis and about, I dunno, 10 feet down there

0:35:120:35:16

is where all the current gets concentrated in the thin wires.

0:35:160:35:19

Nearby, John shows me a target

0:35:190:35:23

that will sit at the centre of the machine.

0:35:230:35:25

So the 26 million amps is flowing right along there.

0:35:250:35:28

And then you can barely see the array of wires.

0:35:280:35:31

There's probably like 300 wires here.

0:35:310:35:35

-They look like a spider's web.

-Exactly.

-Absolutely tiny.

0:35:350:35:37

When it fires, these wires are rapidly vaporised.

0:35:390:35:43

And the strong magnetic field generated by the enormous electric currents

0:35:430:35:48

force the wire remnants to implode.

0:35:480:35:51

This is known as a Z-pinch.

0:35:510:35:53

And it's this that creates the conditions

0:35:540:35:57

for nuclear fusion to occur.

0:35:570:35:59

The diagnosticians are back down from re-arming

0:35:590:36:01

and we're gonna continue with our check list.

0:36:010:36:03

The radiation generated by this machine is extreme,

0:36:030:36:07

and it can, in certain places, create lethal doses of radiation.

0:36:070:36:10

-So it's not a good idea to be stood here when you do that?

-That's right!

0:36:100:36:15

-So it's about to get dangerous, so we'd better take off!

-Right.

0:36:170:36:20

And we've got red flashing lights,

0:36:200:36:22

-all the signs that it's better to leave.

-Yeah. Very exciting.

0:36:220:36:26

So we do about one shot a day.

0:36:260:36:28

So this has already been locked up. I'll take you to the control room.

0:36:280:36:32

The X-rays are so intense that people and video cameras

0:36:340:36:38

are only safe inside the specially-shielded control room.

0:36:380:36:42

-You guys ready?

-We're ready for you to arm.

-OK, we're still armed.

0:36:420:36:45

Attention building 983, Z is preparing to fire.

0:36:450:36:49

We are starting ZBL countdown.

0:36:490:36:51

We are counting, T-minus 135.

0:36:510:36:53

We are charging.

0:36:530:36:55

They're gonna take it up to 82,000 volts.

0:36:550:36:58

We are charging the MTGs.

0:36:580:37:00

When it fires, this vast brute of a machine is powerful enough

0:37:000:37:04

to create a minor Earthquake that's felt across the entire site.

0:37:040:37:09

Charge complete, arming to fire.

0:37:090:37:11

T-zero...

0:37:110:37:13

-DISTANT BOOM

-Trigger!

-Whoa!

0:37:160:37:18

Only one image of the blast has ever been captured.

0:37:190:37:23

This is that image.

0:37:230:37:26

It's called a flash-over,

0:37:260:37:28

the result of the ferocious electromagnetic pulse

0:37:280:37:31

as lightning dances around the metals in the room.

0:37:310:37:35

Thanks, John.

0:37:350:37:37

Did you guys trigger? Cool.

0:37:370:37:39

That was it, it's a success.

0:37:390:37:41

I felt the ground move.

0:37:410:37:44

I think you did too, Brian?

0:37:440:37:46

Yeah. And heard it out there, actually!

0:37:460:37:48

All right, let's go look and see what's left after the shot.

0:37:540:37:57

So this was all fairly pristine, at one point, stainless steel.

0:37:590:38:04

It's quite remarkable. It's almost like the...

0:38:040:38:06

Well, it is the conditions in an atomic bomb, isn't it?

0:38:060:38:09

Well, that's the reason these facilities were first created.

0:38:090:38:13

-So, that's why it looks like it's been in a nuclear war?

-Exactly!

0:38:130:38:16

-Cos it has!

-Right.

0:38:160:38:18

A relic of the Cold War, the Z Machine is being re-invented.

0:38:180:38:23

It turns out that this bomb simulator

0:38:230:38:26

could perhaps be turned into a peaceful source of fusion energy.

0:38:260:38:31

It costs a few tens of thousands of dollars to machine.

0:38:310:38:36

All the parts we just blew up in a few billionths of a second.

0:38:360:38:40

The big hurdle is doing it a few times a second

0:38:400:38:44

or a few times a minute, depending on the yields,

0:38:440:38:48

to get enough power to be useful.

0:38:480:38:51

-Then you've got a power station.

-Exactly. It's the last few feet,

0:38:510:38:54

the stuff that gets blown up.

0:38:540:38:56

Coming up with new ideas on how to rapidly replace that.

0:38:560:38:59

Currently it takes at least a full working day

0:39:010:39:04

to prepare the Z Machine for another shot.

0:39:040:39:07

But if they can learn how to replace all the hardware that gets destroyed quickly enough,

0:39:070:39:12

in less than a minute,

0:39:120:39:14

then it's possible that a machine similar to this

0:39:140:39:17

could one day produce a steady stream of energy.

0:39:170:39:21

But it's a tall order.

0:39:210:39:23

We believe this technology that you're seeing here is the simplest,

0:39:230:39:27

most elegant and efficient technology

0:39:270:39:29

that one could imagine to create fusion.

0:39:290:39:32

But no one knows, you know, what's really possible. Right?

0:39:320:39:35

The Z Machine proves it is experimentally possible

0:39:380:39:41

to light a star on Earth by initiating a controlled explosion

0:39:410:39:46

around a fusion fuel.

0:39:460:39:48

So it does recreate the conditions that are present

0:39:480:39:52

at the heart of a star.

0:39:520:39:55

It's also produced fusion.

0:39:550:39:58

But most of all it's simple.

0:39:580:40:00

That is the most impressive thing to me. It was, or it is,

0:40:000:40:05

in a way, 19th century technology.

0:40:050:40:07

And that's not to denigrate the machine at all.

0:40:070:40:10

It's a very simple idea.

0:40:100:40:12

And I suppose if you want to build a power station,

0:40:120:40:16

if you really want technology you can produce on an industrial scale,

0:40:160:40:19

then you want to do it in as simple a way as possible.

0:40:190:40:23

And that's because the scientists are facing

0:40:250:40:28

perhaps the most difficult engineering challenge in history.

0:40:280:40:33

To produce a viable power plant, they must engineer machines

0:40:330:40:37

that can not only create and withstand the violent conditions found in stars,

0:40:370:40:42

but that are capable of creating hundreds of these exploding stars,

0:40:420:40:47

every minute.

0:40:470:40:49

Only then will they be able to extract a steady supply of energy

0:40:490:40:53

and create significant amounts of electricity for the grid.

0:40:530:40:57

No wonder fusion power is taking so long to come online,

0:41:000:41:04

even though we've understood this process at the sub-atomic level

0:41:040:41:07

for well over half a century.

0:41:070:41:09

This is how fusion works in the sun.

0:41:120:41:14

You start off with protons.

0:41:140:41:16

Nuclei of hydrogen.

0:41:180:41:20

And if those protons can get close enough together,

0:41:200:41:23

so the strong nuclear force, short range force can lock them together,

0:41:230:41:28

then one of those protons can turn into a neutron.

0:41:280:41:31

And two particles called the positron and neutrino

0:41:310:41:35

come flying out.

0:41:350:41:36

And that makes an isotope of hydrogen,

0:41:360:41:41

something called deuterium.

0:41:410:41:43

And about a 7,000th of the hydrogen in your water

0:41:430:41:47

is actually deuterium.

0:41:470:41:49

So it's pretty common on Earth.

0:41:490:41:50

That process takes a long, long time.

0:41:500:41:54

In fact, for a single proton in the sun,

0:41:540:41:56

then it would have to wait billions of years

0:41:560:41:59

to get close enough to undergo that process.

0:41:590:42:02

So that's the blockage in fusion in the sun, if you like.

0:42:020:42:05

Once that's happened and the deuterium's formed,

0:42:050:42:08

then everything goes very quickly.

0:42:080:42:10

Another proton can come and meet the deuterium

0:42:100:42:13

and that turns the deuterium into helium-3.

0:42:130:42:17

And actually a photon particle of light comes flying out.

0:42:170:42:20

And then two of these helium-3s can stick together into helium-4,

0:42:200:42:26

and a couple of protons come flying out.

0:42:260:42:28

So that's the process by which energy is released in the sun.

0:42:280:42:33

It's the process that allows the sun to shine.

0:42:330:42:36

On Earth though, we have an advantage.

0:42:380:42:42

We don't have to go through the lengthy process of making deuterium

0:42:420:42:46

because the oceans are full of it.

0:42:460:42:48

A rich seam of energy that could supply the entire world

0:42:480:42:52

for millions of years.

0:42:520:42:54

It's this tantalising promise of effectively unlimited energy

0:42:550:43:00

that has inspired another approach designed to initiate fusion.

0:43:000:43:04

At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California,

0:43:100:43:14

they're attempting to create a stream of exploding stars

0:43:140:43:17

using nothing more than a light beam.

0:43:170:43:20

Wow!

0:43:210:43:22

The governor yesterday, and me today!

0:43:240:43:26

VIDEO NARRATOR: The National Ignition Facility

0:43:320:43:34

will do what has never before been accomplished.

0:43:340:43:37

To create a self-sustained nuclear fusion reaction

0:43:390:43:43

in a safe, controlled setting.

0:43:430:43:45

At the National Ignition Facility, or NIF,

0:43:480:43:51

they've built the world's largest and most powerful laser.

0:43:510:43:56

Showing me around this enormous site is fusion scientist Eric Storm.

0:43:560:44:02

-Is that the laser?

-Yeah, stop a second. It looks like a factory.

0:44:020:44:06

The 500 trillion watt laser beam travels half a kilometre,

0:44:110:44:16

guided by a series of lenses and mirrors,

0:44:160:44:19

a pulse of light with a thousand times the instantaneous amount of energy

0:44:190:44:24

in America's national grid.

0:44:240:44:27

This shows the actual size of one of these laser beams.

0:44:290:44:32

They all come from one single source

0:44:320:44:34

and at the end get focused onto this fusion target.

0:44:340:44:37

TWO-WAY RADIO: We're trying to get hold of Sopado or Seranowski.

0:44:370:44:40

Copy.

0:44:400:44:43

OK.

0:44:430:44:44

-You can see it is somewhat more impressive.

-It's incredible.

0:44:440:44:47

You know, this looks like a facility that creates stars.

0:44:470:44:51

It does, doesn't it? It looks like it does what it says it does.

0:44:510:44:56

These aluminium square tubes here,

0:44:560:45:01

that's where the laser beams come in.

0:45:010:45:04

There are 96 beams on the top and 96 on the bottom.

0:45:040:45:08

There are focusing lenses that take these beams

0:45:080:45:11

and focus them down to a human hair.

0:45:110:45:14

That would give you quite a suntan, wouldn't it?

0:45:140:45:17

Yeah, you would?!

0:45:170:45:19

I do not recommend it.

0:45:190:45:21

Let's go and look inside the chamber.

0:45:240:45:28

INDISTINCT VOICE ON RADIO

0:45:310:45:35

-Right, you're looking inside the star chamber.

-Look at that.

0:45:350:45:39

INDISTINCT VOICE ON RADIO

0:45:390:45:43

-The target will be sitting... You can see the...

-It's moving in.

0:45:430:45:47

That's the one that will hold the target in the centre of the chamber.

0:45:470:45:52

-Which is the seed of the star.

-The seed of the star, absolutely.

0:45:520:45:56

BELL RINGS

0:45:570:45:59

'The man in charge of the most powerful laser on Earth

0:46:000:46:04

'is Ed Moses.'

0:46:040:46:07

I want to talk about the target because this is the...

0:46:070:46:10

First, how much energy do you get out of one of those targets?

0:46:100:46:14

It's an interesting question. This target is pretty small.

0:46:140:46:17

That little ball is where the fuel for this target is.

0:46:170:46:20

Cos this is where the challenge is, right?

0:46:200:46:23

The design of this thing.

0:46:230:46:24

There's a lot of challenges. You have to put the laser together,

0:46:240:46:28

-you have to get all those lasers...

-You've done that, though.

-Yeah.

0:46:280:46:32

We have to get those 192 beams steered very precisely into this target.

0:46:320:46:36

The laser light is coming down and up on it

0:46:360:46:39

in a very symmetrical fashion so we make a very uniform oven.

0:46:390:46:44

That little ball starts collapsing at a million miles an hour.

0:46:440:46:50

When it starts moving,

0:46:500:46:52

the hydrodynamic forces on it are such that

0:46:520:46:55

it could start ripping itself apart.

0:46:550:46:57

So you have to make it come together really nicely and smoothly

0:46:570:47:01

till it's about the diameter of your hair.

0:47:010:47:04

When you do, you'll have temperatures

0:47:040:47:06

of around 100 million degrees

0:47:060:47:07

and pressures of around 100 billion atmospheres.

0:47:070:47:10

It'll be about a hundred times as dense as lead

0:47:100:47:13

and that's when it will light up and this is not chemical burn.

0:47:130:47:16

This is nuclear burn, that's what's so interesting.

0:47:160:47:19

You get around 30 million times more energy per mass

0:47:190:47:22

out of a nuclear burning device than a chemical burning device.

0:47:220:47:25

But no laser-powered fusion device has yet to achieve this.

0:47:250:47:31

So far, it's proved difficult to focus all the power

0:47:310:47:35

onto the target at precisely the same time.

0:47:350:47:38

Only if this can be overcome will the fuel target be heated

0:47:380:47:43

and condensed enough for fusion to occur.

0:47:430:47:45

This is the Holy Grail - the quest for ignition.

0:47:450:47:51

So you had this star that's about the diameter of a human hair

0:47:530:47:56

for a billionth of a second.

0:47:560:47:58

Yeah, it's star power on Earth. That's what we say.

0:47:580:48:02

If we can do it a few times a second

0:48:020:48:04

then you get the kind of energy that comes out of a power plant.

0:48:040:48:08

NIF is not a power plant,

0:48:080:48:11

but this vast experiment may be on the brink of igniting a star.

0:48:110:48:17

It is our future.

0:48:170:48:19

When is that future going to arrive?

0:48:190:48:22

What would you say? I know it's difficult to speculate,

0:48:220:48:25

but 10 years, 20 years, 50 years?

0:48:250:48:27

I think from the point of view of proving fusion in this laboratory,

0:48:270:48:35

our goal is to do that in the next two or three years.

0:48:350:48:38

Sometimes, people talk about fusion as being 50 years away.

0:48:380:48:41

Right now, I look at it as two or three years away.

0:48:410:48:44

By 2011, the world should know whether laser-powered fusion will achieve ignition.

0:48:460:48:52

Should they fail, then all humanity's hopes for fusion

0:48:540:48:58

will shift to another group of scientists.

0:48:580:49:01

These researchers believe our future energy will come,

0:49:020:49:06

not from a stream of short-lived mini stars,

0:49:060:49:10

but from learning how to create and hold the very matter

0:49:100:49:16

of the sun for days and months on end.

0:49:160:49:19

They too face a tremendous challenge

0:49:190:49:22

for they seek to control the least well understood state of matter -

0:49:220:49:27

plasma.

0:49:270:49:29

If you heat up any atoms or molecules,

0:49:310:49:35

what happens very quickly is that the electrons around the nucleus

0:49:350:49:39

start to boil off.

0:49:390:49:41

The temperature's too high for them to stick in orbit around the nucleus

0:49:410:49:46

and that is the state of most of the universe,

0:49:460:49:50

including the state of our nearby star,

0:49:500:49:53

that incredibly hot ball of plasma - the sun.

0:49:530:49:58

Producing long-lived plasmas

0:50:050:50:08

is the oldest line of fusion power research.

0:50:080:50:11

For 50 years, a small group of countries have run prototype fusion reactors

0:50:130:50:18

in an attempt to extract energy from stable plasma.

0:50:180:50:22

The very latest country to join this club

0:50:220:50:25

is South Korea.

0:50:250:50:27

Here we are - the National Fusion Research Centre.

0:50:290:50:32

Strange thing as well, it's in the middle of an industrial estate.

0:50:320:50:36

When you think of a nuclear reactor facility, you tend to think of it out in a field somewhere,

0:50:360:50:41

but it's right in the middle of the city.

0:50:410:50:44

-Good morning, how are you?

-Good to see you.

0:50:530:50:56

-OK, I'll show you the KSTAR.

-Thank you.

0:50:590:51:01

'KSTAR, like the jet reactor in Oxfordshire,

0:51:020:51:05

'is a type of fusion reactor called a tokamak.'

0:51:050:51:09

-It's a beautiful device.

-Ah-ha.

-It's clean.

0:51:090:51:12

'It was completed in late 2007

0:51:120:51:15

'and I've been invited to see the device before it begins operation later this year

0:51:150:51:21

'by its chief creator, Dr Lee.'

0:51:210:51:24

He used to be a vacuum engineer.

0:51:240:51:26

-Thank you.

-You can go.

0:51:260:51:28

Bye.

0:51:280:51:30

Thanks.

0:51:300:51:32

'What makes KSTAR unique are the advanced super-conducting magnets

0:51:360:51:41

'that hold the plasma in place.

0:51:410:51:43

'They cool to minus 269 degrees.

0:51:450:51:49

'At this temperature,

0:51:490:51:51

'the magnets have no electrical resistance,

0:51:510:51:56

'which means KSTAR needs a lot less power to run than its predecessors.'

0:51:560:52:01

What's the thing you hope to learn with this machine?

0:52:010:52:06

So far, all the tokamak fusion reactor

0:52:060:52:09

runs for a very short period of time.

0:52:090:52:11

A few seconds.

0:52:110:52:13

So we, scientifically, we have proven fusion can be realisable.

0:52:130:52:19

-Yeah.

-But on the other hand, we have to make energy

0:52:190:52:24

-so this machine has to run a long way, you know?

-Mmm.

0:52:240:52:27

Eventually, nine months and ten months continuously.

0:52:270:52:30

So, you would contain the plasma?

0:52:300:52:32

-Yeah.

-What, months at a time?

0:52:320:52:34

Yes.

0:52:340:52:36

'KSTAR aims to show that plasma can be routinely created and held

0:52:360:52:42

'for long periods deep within the heart of the machine

0:52:420:52:46

'in the way needed for a commercial fusion power station.'

0:52:460:52:50

This is a very exciting moment, actually.

0:52:500:52:53

I never imagined I'd get to climb inside the reactor, which is...

0:52:530:52:58

unbelievable.

0:52:580:53:00

It's not easy access!

0:53:010:53:04

How did he do that?

0:53:040:53:06

HE LAUGHS

0:53:060:53:07

Oof!

0:53:070:53:09

This is brilliant, I've got to say.

0:53:110:53:13

Well, this is the inside of KSTAR.

0:53:140:53:17

When this is operating, where my head is, there will be a plasma,

0:53:170:53:21

10, 20 times hotter than the core of the sun.

0:53:210:53:25

And it works, basically, like a home microwave oven,

0:53:250:53:29

except that six megawatts is the power consumption of

0:53:290:53:32

2,000 domestic houses. So...

0:53:320:53:36

it's a remarkable place.

0:53:360:53:38

The temperature here, 20 times hotter than the centre of the sun.

0:53:380:53:41

Below my feet, where the magnets are, minus 269 degrees,

0:53:410:53:46

which is something like the temperature, if you go outside the Earth's atmosphere,

0:53:460:53:51

and outside, actually, to the most distant planets, incredibly cold.

0:53:510:53:55

And this is one of the best bits, in a way,

0:53:560:53:59

it's the television camera.

0:53:590:54:02

And they've already had some success.

0:54:040:54:07

Just before my visit,

0:54:070:54:09

they ran the machine for the first time.

0:54:090:54:12

It's not fusion yet,

0:54:120:54:13

but an important step towards KSTAR's goal

0:54:130:54:17

of holding 100,000 degree plasma for five minutes.

0:54:170:54:22

If they can achieve this,

0:54:220:54:24

it will be a significant landmark on the road to fusion power.

0:54:240:54:28

Will you get net energy out of KSTAR?

0:54:290:54:33

KSTAR will be...

0:54:330:54:35

kind of break even machine.

0:54:350:54:38

So, energy consumption to really support the whole system,

0:54:380:54:41

and the energy out is almost, you know, one to one, like.

0:54:410:54:46

But an economical power plant,

0:54:460:54:49

we are now considering, is about 30 to 50 times of this is necessary.

0:54:490:54:55

Means one watt comes in,

0:54:550:54:57

and 30 to 50 comes out.

0:54:570:54:59

Then, we can really make it in

0:54:590:55:01

the reasonable cost of electricity from the fusion device.

0:55:010:55:05

The South Koreans have built KSTAR

0:55:070:55:09

as their contribution to an international project

0:55:090:55:12

to build the biggest fusion reactor ever attempted, called ITER,

0:55:120:55:18

which is about to begin construction in Southern France.

0:55:180:55:23

-Really, this is the start of the final phase of R&D towards fusion.

-I think so. Yes.

0:55:230:55:29

We have done 50 years of R&D in fusion,

0:55:290:55:31

fusing lots of machines, many places.

0:55:310:55:33

-Now, this is endgame.

-Yes.

0:55:330:55:36

So, now, put together all the knowledge of these 50 years

0:55:360:55:41

and now, merging into this, KSTAR, ITER, and finally, commercialisation.

0:55:410:55:47

This machine, having seen it, means more to me than I thought it would

0:55:520:55:56

because I really get the sense that if this doesn't work,

0:55:560:55:59

then, we're in, literally, real trouble.

0:55:590:56:04

Hopefully, it's all engineering, and it's all practice.

0:56:040:56:09

It's not simple because it will take decades.

0:56:090:56:11

But it's not a fundamental issue,

0:56:110:56:14

because if it were a fundamental issue,

0:56:140:56:17

then this kind of fusion would drop out of the race,

0:56:170:56:20

and we'd be left with one, with laser fusion.

0:56:200:56:22

And for me, if you think that fusion is the future of our civilisation,

0:56:220:56:26

that's a big risk.

0:56:260:56:28

So, good luck, KSTAR.

0:56:280:56:31

If you'd asked me before I made this film -

0:56:460:56:48

what are the greatest achievements in the history of humanity?,

0:56:480:56:52

I would say, the moments when we overreach,

0:56:520:56:54

the moments when we set foot on the moon,

0:56:540:56:57

or took photographs of Saturn and Jupiter and distant planets.

0:56:570:57:01

Building a fusion power station that works

0:57:020:57:05

and delivers electrons into the power grid of a city

0:57:050:57:09

will be the next step

0:57:090:57:11

in the evolution of our civilisation.

0:57:110:57:13

It's just about beyond our capabilities,

0:57:130:57:17

technologically and scientifically, at the moment.

0:57:170:57:20

And that's surely the best place to be.

0:57:200:57:23

That's the place you want to stand, as a human being.

0:57:230:57:27

So, I would celebrate the fusion power station builders

0:57:270:57:30

in a way that I wouldn't have done before we made this film.

0:57:300:57:33

So, when can we expect fusion power from the mains?

0:57:400:57:47

All right. My prediction. I hate being a futurist.

0:57:470:57:50

# This time tomorrow, where will we be?... #

0:57:500:57:56

2036, June.

0:57:560:57:59

That's when it COULD be done

0:58:010:58:03

with an exerted effort.

0:58:030:58:04

2027.

0:58:040:58:06

I don't think it will happen until then.

0:58:060:58:09

# This time tomorrow

0:58:090:58:12

# What will we know...? #

0:58:120:58:14

There's a 50% chance of it working,

0:58:170:58:19

20 years after you seriously fund the science.

0:58:190:58:24

So, it's time for a commitment.

0:58:240:58:26

# I'll leave the sun behind me

0:58:260:58:29

# And I'll watch the clouds as they sadly pass me by

0:58:290:58:35

# Seven miles below me

0:58:350:58:39

# I can see the world and it ain't so big at all

0:58:390:58:45

# This time tomorrow

0:58:470:58:50

# What will we see...? #

0:58:500:58:53

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:530:58:55

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:550:58:56

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