A social collaboration course will be opened at the University of Tokyo in May as a collaboration between industry and academia aimed at the early realization of fusion energy, which is generated when light atomic nuclei such as hydrogen fuse together under high temperature and pressure and are replaced by other atomic nuclei.
According to the University of Tokyo, eight companies from the industry, including Kyoto University startup Starlight Engine, Kyoto Fusioneering, Electric Power Development, JGC, Fujikura, Furukawa Electric, and Marubeni, will participate in the social collaboration course, bringing together their respective areas of expertise to advance the sophistication and practical application of fusion systems and develop human resources. The instructor in charge will be Professor Akira Ejiri of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo.
When light atomic nuclei such as deuterium or tritium are converted into heavy atomic nuclei such as helium, the mass of the atomic nuclei is slightly reduced and a large amount of energy is released. Fusion energy utilizes this energy and is said to be a method of reproducing the nuclear fusion reaction of the sun on Earth.
The world's energy situation has seen oil and natural gas prices soar due to factors such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Fusion energy is being cited as one of the measures to overcome this situation, and the Cabinet Office has compiled a fusion energy innovation strategy, setting a goal of being the first in the world to demonstrate power generation in the 2030s.
