This is a significant disadvantage compared to renewable energy sources, whose costs have fallen significantly in recent years and which are increasingly able to compete with traditional energy sources. By comparison, the total cost of the ITER project was initially estimated at five billion euros. The multi-billion-dollar international nuclear fusion research project is now three times as expensive, at over 15 billion euros. To illustrate this, compare the costs of an offshore wind farm with an output of 400 megawatts, which at Borkum Riffgrund West amounts to around one billion euros. In addition, many wind and solar plants can be installed on a small scale, making them affordable and accessible to individuals and communities.
nuclear fusion also produces radioactive radiation. In contrast to nuclear fission, however, nuclear fusion produces less long-lived waste products. The activity of the waste decreases rapidly: after about 100 years, it decreases to one ten-thousandth of the initial value. After a decay time of one to five hundred years, the radiotoxic content of the waste is comparable germany consumer email list to the risk potential of all the coal ash from a coal-fired power plant, which always contains natural radioactive substances. Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, on the other hand, has a half-life of 24,000 years.
Voices from Politics and Research
Voices from politics, especially from the ranks of the FDP, express the wish that Germany should become a pioneer in the use of nuclear fusion. If FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr has his way, the goal must be to build the first nuclear fusion reactor that produces electricity for companies and households in Germany. For this reason, he believes that the traffic light coalition has a duty to create legislative opportunities for the development of nuclear fusion. There are also calls from the opposition for further investment. Opposition leader Friedrich Merz is calling for more intensive study of nuclear fusion, as he sees it as an opportunity to reduce energy dependence on Russia.
Radioactive waste: Like nuclear fission
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