5 Israeli Universities Join Forces To Create Nuclear Fusion Institute

Five Israeli universities will together establish and operate a national nuclear fusion institute, Israel’s Energy Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The participating institutions include Ben-Gurion University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, the ministry said. Additional partners include the state-run Soreq Nuclear Research Center, and the Israeli startup NT-Tao, which is developing a compact system for nuclear fusion, according to the statement. The initial five-year budget for the nuclear fusion institute will be around 40 million shekels or $11.5 million.

Nuclear fusion is a process in which the atomic nuclei of lighter elements combine to form the nucleus of a heavier element, releasing energy in the process. The sun, for example, is powered by the fusion of hydrogen into helium. The energy released in fusion reactions, in the form of heat and light, is much greater than that released in chemical reactions, such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Fusion has the potential to provide a virtually limitless, clean source of energy. It produces no greenhouse gases or harmful air pollutants, and the fuel (mainly hydrogen) is abundant and widely available. Additionally, the process of nuclear fusion generates relatively little radioactive waste compared to other forms of nuclear energy.

The US Energy Department announced on Dec. 13 that, for the first time, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory managed to get more energy out of a nuclear fusion reaction than was put in from an external source, a breakthrough known as “fusion ignition” that can make fusion a self-sustaining process.