• Question: Is there a way of producing infinite energy?

    Asked by danandcallum123 to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Nathan Green

      Nathan Green answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      thats what everyone would love (except maybe the oil companies). But at the moment no-one has worked this one out so we need to be more careful with the energy sources we have.

    • Photo: Jason King

      Jason King answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Infinite is an awful lot, but there is hope that we can get a technology called nuclear fusion reactors working. This is basically the sam way that the sun generates all its energy, and involves joining two atoms together. This is the opposite to the kinds of nuclear reactors we have at the moment (called fission reactors) which split atoms apart. These new fusions reactors would probably use elements like lithium, or dueterium (a kind of hydrogen) for fuel, which we have lots of. It’s thought that we have enough of these for at least 30 times as long as our sun will last. So I guess we will have bigger problems to worry about…

Comments