N1HRV — broadcast
20260917 040000 UTC
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[00:00:04] in
[00:00:53] of
[00:01:43] of
[00:01:50] a
[00:03:06] a
[00:05:30] More air conditioners, more data centers, more electric
[00:05:33] cars around the world, we're using more and more
[00:05:36] electricity, but there's good news, wind
[00:05:40] and solar power are stepping. up to meet that demand, less
[00:05:44] fossil fuels, more renewables, the green energy
[00:05:48] transition is underway, and scientists are working on
[00:05:51] something even bigger, nuclear fusion, it's a potential game
[00:05:55] changer, unlimited energy emission
[00:05:58] free. Join us for
[00:06:02] electrifying insights on this edition of DW Science
[00:06:05] Show. Welcome to Tomorrow
[00:06:07] Today. What does a donut have to do
[00:06:11] with the sun? what does a blowpipe have to do with a
[00:06:14] furnace and what happened on May 22nd,
[00:06:17] 2025? a really exciting day here at the
[00:06:21] Institute, it was top
[00:06:23] notch, but first things first,
[00:06:27] let's start with our everburning star and a question: can
[00:06:31] the sun's fusion process be replicated to produce energy here
[00:06:35] on earth? scientists have been trying and failing to
[00:06:39] achieve this for decades. we still don't have
[00:06:43] commercial fusion reactors, but we do have research
[00:06:46] facilities like Vendelstein 7x in northeast
[00:06:50] Germany. It was purpose built to develop
[00:06:53] accelerator, a giant machine named after the Latin word for
[00:06:57] star. Since May, it's been a world record holder in
[00:07:01] fusion research, title earned after months of
[00:07:04] experimentation.
[00:07:42] ionized by heater and turned into a
[00:07:45] plasma. Here's
[00:07:48] how it works: inside the machine is vacuum chamber
[00:07:52] shaped like twisted donut.
[00:07:56] Normally, tiny amount of hydrogen enters as a gas through a
[00:07:59] valve and is heated to extreme
[00:08:01] temperatures. Microwaves
[00:08:05] then strike the hydrogen atoms, ionizing them and
[00:08:09] transforming the gas into a plasma. Heated. to tens of
[00:08:13] millions of degrees celsius, the plasma
[00:08:16] discharge then stayed at those temperatures for record breaking 43
[00:08:20] seconds.
[00:08:24] this puts the lab well ahead of other major research
[00:08:28] facilities.
[00:08:32] what makes it particularly exciting is that we don't see any major obstacles
[00:08:36] to extending those 43 seconds to 100, 200 or
[00:08:40] even 500 seconds.
[00:08:42] of
[00:08:47] attempt relied a new approach,
[00:08:50] The successful feeding instead hydrogen gas through a valve, researchers use tiny
[00:08:53] frozen hydrogen
[00:08:54] pellets.
[00:09:00] They're shot in through kind of blowpipe like the ones we made back in
[00:09:03] school, but these pellets are propelled by pressurized
[00:09:06] gas. They dissolve, melt, and quickly vaporize,
[00:09:10] becoming plasma. constant supply of plasma,
[00:09:14] like shoveling coal into a
[00:09:15] furnace,
[00:09:20] the heat in this furnace is contained by magnetic fields
[00:09:24] generated by a complex array of
[00:09:26] magnets. they keep the plasma from touching the
[00:09:30] chamber walls because contact would cool it down
[00:09:33] instantly. designing the W7X magnet
[00:09:37] configuration required supercomputers and years of
[00:09:40] planning. so when can we expect
[00:09:44] the first fusion reactor to go
[00:09:46] online? a
[00:09:49] conservative estimate says sometime in the second half the
[00:09:52] century, 2060 or 2070, something like
[00:09:56] that, but it's pointless to speculate, because we could
[00:10:00] also take a much bolder unconventional approach. in fact, many
[00:10:04] startups are doing that. there are now about
[00:10:08] 50 fusion startups worldwide, taking a variety of
[00:10:11] approaches. "they're aiming for success in the 2030s, which
[00:10:15] is practically tomorrow, but whether it will be the 2030s
[00:10:19] or the 2070s, 70er
[00:10:23] werden, das kann tatsächlich keiner sagen."
[00:10:27] For now, the scelerator is undergoing maintenance with number of
[00:10:30] upgrades scheduled over the next few months.
[00:10:34] Then W7X will be back and chasing new
[00:10:37] records.
[00:10:42] Did you know that nuclear fishing, the process behind nuclear power
[00:10:46] today, is considered more dangerous than nuclear
[00:10:50] fusion. Fish accidents can release massive amounts of
[00:10:53] radioactive material. as happened in Fukushima and
[00:10:57] Chernoble. Fusion is safer and doesn't produce
[00:11:01] high-level radioactive waste that must be stored safely for
[00:11:04] millennia, yet Finland is betting a future powered by
[00:11:08] nuclear
[00:11:09] fishion.
[00:11:14] The Olkiluato peninsula on Finland's west coast is
[00:11:17] one the country's most important energy hubs. It's
[00:11:21] home to three nuclear reactor units, the newest. one went
[00:11:25] into commercial operation in 2023. the turbine hall
[00:11:29] is where the massive generators are located. they're driven by heat
[00:11:33] from the reactor, which is how the electricity is
[00:11:36] produced. alquiloato
[00:11:40] 3 has capacity of 1600 megwts, making it one
[00:11:44] the largest nuclear reactors in the EU. the facility covers
[00:11:48] about 14% of Finland's electricity
[00:11:50] production. the company's press officer says
[00:11:54] public concern were minimal, we have been measuring for
[00:11:58] 40 years this, what people fear and what, what,
[00:12:01] how do they like nuclear power, and they
[00:12:05] they like nuclear power lot today, they are not afraid the
[00:12:09] waste, it's not a major concern anymore, we have
[00:12:13] solution here in Olkylot, so the support for
[00:12:16] nuclear is good in every
[00:12:19] party, but there were some problems here
[00:12:22] too, construction was supposed to last from 2005 to
[00:12:26] 2009, but in
[00:12:28] the end it took 14 additional years. The project was
[00:12:31] plagued with delays including loose parts in the turbine and issues
[00:12:35] with the instrumentation and control system. After multiple
[00:12:39] repairs, the final cost had 11 billion euros, about
[00:12:43] four times the original budget. So we were, we were
[00:12:47] pioneers, so there was a long break that nobody was
[00:12:50] building here in western Europe nuclear
[00:12:53] power, so... "the readiness to
[00:12:56] build was not very good and also the power
[00:13:00] plant was new design and it
[00:13:03] was uh not designed in
[00:13:07] detail level, so plans were changed during the
[00:13:11] project, but there were no protests over the delays
[00:13:14] and soaring costs, and now the new plant is delivering
[00:13:18] electricity to the country, as in France, in
[00:13:22] Finland, nuclear energy is considered..." green
[00:13:25] energy, the operator has proudly called the new
[00:13:28] reactor Finland's largest climate
[00:13:31] project.
[00:13:34] Finland is one of several European nations investing in nuclear
[00:13:38] energy. New reactors are underway in France,
[00:13:42] Tzechia and Slovakia, while Poland is preparing to build its
[00:13:45] first commercial nuclear power
[00:13:47] plant.
[00:13:55] think that when you look at new build projects today, the cost
[00:13:58] increases they incur, the long time lines they
[00:14:01] involve, and if you also look at the economic costs of
[00:14:05] renewables today and compare that to investments in
[00:14:09] new nuclear power plants and other options, then I
[00:14:13] believe renewables will ultimately have an enormous cost advantage over
[00:14:16] other concepts concept.
[00:14:20] Finland though, has chosen the path of nuclear
[00:14:23] power, here, people are convinced that ultimately
[00:14:27] electricity will be far cheaper with nuclear power than without
[00:14:30] it. the finish operators don't understand Germany's
[00:14:34] nuclear phase out, because big country like Germany,
[00:14:38] very big country, so if you want to
[00:14:41] reach reach 100% renewables and
[00:14:45] electricity systems, we haven't seen it yet a
[00:14:49] big country, so all the best for the for this uh
[00:14:52] challenging effort that uh... that
[00:14:56] you can hopefully do without nuclear power, but the
[00:15:00] our solution is is nuclear and renewables
[00:15:03] together. the finns have also found solution for
[00:15:07] the nuclear waste. geologist Johanna
[00:15:11] savunan is on our way to the construction site near the power
[00:15:14] plants. at more than 450 meters below
[00:15:18] ground, the world's first permanent repository for high-level
[00:15:22] radioactive waste is taking shape.
[00:15:27] Underground tunnels will soon store spent fuel rods for thousands of
[00:15:31] years. The nuclear waste bunker has attracted
[00:15:35] worldwide attention. "I feel
[00:15:38] proud, I feel proud that we are taking action a difficult
[00:15:42] manner and not just waiting for some others
[00:15:46] to show the way. I feel that this is an
[00:15:50] issue that needs to be solved, and I'm I feel proud that Finland
[00:15:53] is doing exactly that. 300 meters long
[00:15:57] and carved into granite bedrock, the tunnels will one day store
[00:16:01] highly radioactive nuclear waste. An
[00:16:05] elevator will bring the copper canisters. filled with spent fuel
[00:16:08] elements down into the repository. each canister
[00:16:12] will be placed in a hole. the holes and the tunnel will be
[00:16:16] plugged with bentonite and the tunnel finally will be sealed
[00:16:20] with concrete. the onkalo repository will go
[00:16:24] online in 2026. the waste will remain here for
[00:16:27] over 100 thousand years until it is only minimally
[00:16:31] radioactive. radioactive waste is
[00:16:34] quite difficult.
[00:17:07] dependence, and over the past decades that's worked quite well thanks to
[00:17:11] their use of nuclear power, so you could say their decisions
[00:17:15] make sense for them, but you also need to keep in mind that other countries might
[00:17:19] decide things differently. there's no single correct
[00:17:22] choice.
[00:17:26] Finland believes that its repository will be a permanent solution to
[00:17:30] the nuclear waste problem. Germany, by contrast, still doesn't
[00:17:34] have a long-term storage plan.
[00:18:07] term storage plan for its nuclear
[00:18:09] waste, and the
[00:18:12] reactors and will supply the fins with
[00:18:16] electricity for decades to
[00:18:18] come.
[00:18:23] By 2030, Germany aims to generate 80% of
[00:18:27] its electricity from renewables like wind and solar
[00:18:31] power. A key part of this green energy
[00:18:34] transition is battery storage. It stores excess
[00:18:38] energy for later use when demand is high, that helps
[00:18:42] stabilize the power grid and prevent
[00:18:45] overloads.
[00:18:51] The energy transition is happening right here in walsom, battery
[00:18:55] energy storage system is being built, a 4-hour
[00:18:58] system. It will deliver 50 megw of power enough
[00:19:02] to supply a mid-sized German city of 100,000 to
[00:19:06] 15000 people.
[00:19:11] for 4 hours, of course it has to make economic sense, we're a business, so it has to pay
[00:19:14] off. Kevin Galla is an electricity trader for
[00:19:18] major German energy company, soon he won't just be
[00:19:22] selling electricity from gas and hard cold power plants, he'll
[00:19:26] also be buying and storing
[00:19:27] it. By spring
[00:19:31] 2026, new battery system will be running
[00:19:34] here. It can deliver 50 megaws. of
[00:19:37] electricity about the output
[00:19:40] of a small gas plant for 4
[00:19:42] hours, because it's plugged
[00:19:46] straight into the grid, the battery can store surplus renewable
[00:19:50] power and release it when demand rises, turning those
[00:19:53] swings into
[00:19:54] profit.
[00:19:58] ultimately we're taking a business risk, but we believe flexibility is
[00:20:02] key for the energy
[00:20:03] transition. right now it
[00:20:06] feels like:
[00:20:37] price differences, but over time you scoop up the
[00:20:40] returns. This business model has been tested for about
[00:20:44] 10 years with a 15 megaw pilot
[00:20:47] system. German grid operators have received. speculative
[00:20:50] requests for battery projects totaling 500
[00:20:53] gigawatts, far above the country's peak demand. if
[00:20:57] all were built, their combined capacity could for few hours
[00:21:01] match the output of roughly 500 nuclear power
[00:21:04] plants. with growing
[00:21:07] flexibility, more storage systems and more co-locations, meaning more
[00:21:11] pairing of renewable plants with ensight battery storage, the price
[00:21:15] gaps will gradually disappear. unterschiede langsam
[00:21:18] abschmelzen. On April
[00:21:21] 28, 2025, Spain and Portugal were hit by a
[00:21:25] massive blackout. Volt spiked beyond safe
[00:21:29] limits, shutting down over 20 gigaws of plants, including
[00:21:32] four nuclear reactors. The grid's heartbeat its
[00:21:36] frequency became unstable. Could battery
[00:21:40] storage systems have prevented
[00:21:42] it? We've observed the same thing that
[00:21:45] happened in Spain and Portugal here in our control
[00:21:48] room.
[00:21:53] CTO at transmission grid operator Amprion, helps keep
[00:21:56] Germany's grid stable. He says a blackout like the one that
[00:22:00] happened in Spain and Portugal can't happen in Germany thanks to
[00:22:04] backup systems. But if batteries are to join that
[00:22:07] safety net, they must do more than store energy. They need to
[00:22:11] help steady the grid's pulse by supplying reactive power on
[00:22:15] demand. Das kann man so ein bisschen vergleichen mit
[00:22:18] dem.
[00:23:20] but coal and lignite are set to be phased out by 2038 at
[00:23:23] the latest. once they're gone, reactive power won't
[00:23:27] come automatically, so a formal market needs to secure
[00:23:31] supply. the big question is, can batteries deliver
[00:23:35] during the dark duldrums, those long stretches with little sun or
[00:23:39] wind. battery storage
[00:23:43] is being put to the test here. what role will they play in
[00:23:46] tomorrow's energy system? with mega batteries on on the
[00:23:50] rise, do we even need new backup gas plants at
[00:23:53] all?
[00:23:58] is a researcher at Aken Technical University, he studies how the
[00:24:02] power grid will need to change with the energy
[00:24:05] transition. These battery storage
[00:24:09] systems will make us much more independent. They
[00:24:12] allow us to turn solar power into a plannable energy
[00:24:16] source for 24 or even 48 hours.
[00:24:24] Last winter the grid came under pressure, these energy
[00:24:28] charts show which plants supplied power and how much.
[00:24:31] Up to November 1st, wind was strong, but in the following
[00:24:35] days it dropped. The weak
[00:24:39] winter sun didn't add much. Gas plants stepped
[00:24:43] in with up to 15 gigs and coal also
[00:24:47] ramped up to about 20 gigawatts.
[00:26:07] Batteries have the edge for short-term energy
[00:26:10] storage. By contrast, hydrogen can
[00:26:14] hold huge amounts of energy for months, but
[00:26:17] producing hydrogen takes a lot of energy,
[00:26:21] ideally from renewable sources. That's what makes it
[00:26:25] green hydrogen, and it's being produced in places you
[00:26:29] might not expect.
[00:28:32] like steel production, that's why government and industry are looking to
[00:28:36] hydrogen from africa, but
[00:28:39] against putting too much faith in the
[00:28:41] plan. we analyze
[00:28:45] what it costs to produce green hydrogen in Africa for export to
[00:28:48] Europe. we found it far more expensive than expected,
[00:28:52] mainly because financing costs are higher than expected.
[00:28:55] investment risks in many African countries are greater than for example
[00:28:59] in Europe. across.
[00:29:33] That said production in Europe probably won't ramp up quickly enough to meet
[00:29:36] our needs, so the question remains where else could it come
[00:29:40] from? Either way, it will cost
[00:29:42] more. Eggly study says investment
[00:29:46] costs are the main reason prices will sore. Interest rates
[00:29:50] are now much higher than the expected 4 to8%.
[00:29:54] In Sudan rates are over 26%. These
[00:29:57] unexpectedly high costs for green hydrogen from Africa
[00:30:01] could slow Europe's.
[00:30:34] clear promises and purchase agreements from Europe could help
[00:30:38] make some African projects possible and bring
[00:30:41] benefits to both Africa and
[00:30:43] Europe.
[00:30:48] What are stars made of? How many colors can
[00:30:52] butterflies see? Could robots have babies one
[00:30:56] day? Do you have science question? Then send
[00:31:00] it!