What the fusion breakthrough means for Saskatchewan and its economy

The experiment first showed promise back in Aug. 2021 and involved firing a barrage of lasers at a cylinder that contained a BB-sized fuel pellet of hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium.

The pellet, bombarded by X-rays, vaporized as its nuclei fused in a brief burst of energy — 50 per cent more than had been used to produce it.

The breakthrough at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California used powerful lasers focusing enormous energy on a tiny capsule filled with fuel. But researchers and outside experts acknowledge it will likely take decades before fusion might be used to produce nearly limitless carbon-free energy.

Despite the excitement from the science world, there are some concerns and outlooks about what this means for the future of renewable energy, climate change, and the Saskatchewan economy.

Oscar Zapata is an assistant professor at the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan. While he was excited to see the breakthrough and the potential for fusion-based energy, he was worried the excitement could put other climate change strategies on hold.

“People and governments would prefer to wait until this technology is available to produce electricity in society,” he said. “The problem is, it would require 10 to 15 years or maybe even longer, two to three decades according to some people, to have a system that can produce this kind of energy on a larger scale.”

That sentiment is also being felt by the Environmental Society of Saskatchewan which acknowledges there’s still a ways to go in this journey.

“The general consensus on our end is that we’re still decades away from having the information we need to assess what this breakthrough could mean,” the society said in an email to paNOW.

Another thought that Zapata has with the fusion breakthrough and the potential energy source is what it could do to the economy in Saskatchewan, which is reliant on resource revenue.

He believes that if fusion energy becomes widespread, other forms of energy like oil and gas will be phased out and minerals like uranium could lose value. This means the province needs to start now to find ways to diversify its economy.

“Countries and provinces that are reliant on a resource-based economy will have to start thinking about the future and the need to diversify the economic structure to stay competitive, to keep creating jobs and maintaining people’s well-being,” he said adding that when it comes to shifts in the economy, two to three decades is not a long time to wait.

“We will probably see some of the effects of this type of announcement in a shorter period of time,” Zapata said. “We don’t have to wait until 2030 or 2040 to see the effects. They will be effective in the near future. We will probably see lower prices for these types of resources sooner rather than later.”

Despite the warnings, Zapata is confident that Saskatchewan can diversify, given the advancements in renewable energy technology over the past 20 years and that regardless of what happens with nuclear fusion, Saskatchewan has the need to diversify and do it soon.

–With files from The Canadian Press

by Derek Craddock

What the fusion breakthrough means for Saskatchewan and its economy

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