This summer in the Northern hemisphere has been a real scorcher with Western Europe experiencing prolonged hot and dry conditions that have fueled extreme wildfires across the region.
With that weather set to become the norm rather than a one-off event, everyone will need to do their bit to curtail the impact of climate change and “big science” is no different.
In this year’s Physics World Big Science Briefing, we report how accelerator science is making its technologies and facilities more sustainable. The aim is not only to cut the energy and resources that accelerators use, but also to understand – and, more importantly, minimize – their “whole-lifetime” environmental impact.
Longer term, researchers are also prioritizing disruptive accelerator concepts that could slash the size, cost and carbon footprint of next-generation facilities.
One example is plasma-wakefield acceleration, which uses laser- or particle-beam-driven intense “plasma waves” as the accelerating medium, yielding electric fields up to 1000 times greater than in classical accelerators. Those ultra-high accelerating gradients promise a significant reduction in the size, cost and carbon footprint of next-generation accelerator facilities.
With the world’s energy demands increasing, and our impact on the climate becoming ever clearer, the search is on for greener, cleaner energy production. That’s why fusion energy has undergone something of a renaissance in recent years.
According to a report by the Fusion Industry Association on the state of the fusion industry, 71% of the 56 private fusion companies surveyed for the report expect the first fusion plant to deliver commercial electricity by the 2030s.
One of the companies with such ambitious aims is Focused Energy, a laser-fusion firm based in Germany and California, which is attempting to generate energy from the laser-driven fusion of hydrogen isotopes.
In this briefing, Debbie Callahan, chief strategy officer at Focused Energy, describes how they plan to have a pilot plant, dubbed LightHouse, operational by the end of the 2030s.
While many milestones need to be hit before we see fusion generating electricity for the grid, when it comes to meeting the demands of a changing climate, big science is continuing to play a key role. Indeed, sustainability will be a keyword at this year’s Big Science Business Forum held in Maastricht from 27–30 October.
We hope you enjoy the briefing and let us know your feedback on the issue.
The post The free-to-read <em>Physics World Big Science Briefing</em> 2026 is out now appeared first on Physics World.
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