IBM Just Made A Huge Fusion Energy Breakthrough Thanks To Quantum Computing – BGR

Quantum computing is kicking the doors open on a fusion energy problem that has long challenged scientists. IBM, in partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Cleveland Clinic, discovered a new way to model how fusion plants could produce and recover tritium. It’s a rare fuel  found in several common objects that are radioactive. Tritium is created naturally when cosmic rays reach the upper atmosphere, but supplies are limited as its 12-year half-life results in relatively quick decay. 

The lack of tritium is a roadblock to having fusion as a power source. But this radioactive isotype of hydrogen can be produced by exposing more commonly available lithium to neutrons. Tritium is notoriously hard to capture and reuse, but a molten…