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The sun is 93 million miles away.

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And yet it can illuminate
the surface of the Earth.

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You can fit a million Earths inside.

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The surface temperature
is 6,000 degrees.

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00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:29,000
At its core,
it's 15 million degrees.

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00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,600
It loses 4 million tons
of mass every second.

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That mass is turned into energy
and we feel it as heat.

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The sun is powered by the
strongest force in the universe.

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And, as a physicist, I believe that
our long term future depends on us

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00:00:48,160 --> 00:00:49,640
learning to do the same.

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That's why, across the world,
teams of engineers and scientists

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are stepping into the unknown.

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You are looking
inside the Star Chamber.

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We're gonna discharge
about 26 million amps.

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That little ball starts collapsing
at a million miles an hour.

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They're all united
in a single quest.

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So, it's about to get dangerous,
so we'd better take off.

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It's the greatest engineering
challenge that we have yet faced -

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to build a machine that
will make a star on Earth.

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Sunrise, dawn. That moment
when night becomes day that had

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an immense significance
for our ancestors.

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The sun sets the rhythm
for life on Earth.

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Each day it returns
and the world awakens.

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I think in one way
we lost that sense of

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significance of the sunrise in
our modern, electrically-lit world.

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But, in another way,
that's been replaced

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by modern science's understanding

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of the sun as a violent,
majestic and massive object.

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And...as is often the way when
you understand the true nature

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of something, then that's
all the more reason to revere it.

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The sun bathes our planet in energy.

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It's so powerful
that in just one second its light

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could supply the United States
with energy for a million years.

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And hidden at its heart
is the power source -

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all 385 million, million,
million, million watts of it.

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It's a power source that lights up

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every one of the 100 billion
stars in our galaxy.

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So the universe is awash

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with effectively
limitless amounts of energy.

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Then you have to ask the question,
is there a way of producing

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the energy that you need to run
all this for everyone in the world,

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in a way that doesn't
damage the planet?

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As a physicist, there is a way.
In principle, there's a way.

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It's the same way that stars
produce energy. It's nuclear fusion.

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Nuclear fusion is nature's
power source, a process that has

46
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kept our sun burning without fail
for five billion years and counting.

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00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,800
The question I want to ask in this
film is, is it possible that fusion

48
00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:05,840
is a power source for the future?

49
00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,720
Can a nuclear fusion power station
be constructed? And can we do it

50
00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:12,520
sufficiently quickly that
we can use it to address

51
00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:17,360
the pressing and serious energy
crisis that we've got today?

52
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It sounds like science fiction.

53
00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,680
But in the heart of Oxfordshire,
they've been busy lighting

54
00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:31,720
little stars for over 30 years.

55
00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,600
So, what's the advantage of fusion?
Well, the chief advantage of fusion

56
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is probably it doesn't produce carbon
dioxide, so no global warming gasses.

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'The Joint European Taurus, or JET,

58
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'is the world's largest experimental
fusion reactor where each day

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'they initiate this beautifully
simple nuclear reaction.'

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So it seems to me that,
in principle,

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we have the ideal energy source.

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It couldn't be better, could it?

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It had one downside,
that it's very hard to do.

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You had to create the conditions
that are 10 times hotter than

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the centre of the sun to initiate
these reactions. HAD, you said?

66
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But, right, we've done it -

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in the machine that
you're about to look at.

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00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:25,080
Seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one.

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00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:27,600
There it goes.

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00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:32,000
'Scientists have learned how
to create and hold star matter,

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'a cocktail of gasses heated
to 100 million degrees.

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'For a moment, a little piece of
the sun springs into life on earth.'

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It's amazing.
So we're looking at the conditions,

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00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:49,840
ten times the conditions that are
present in the centre of the sun?

75
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They're ten times the
temperature of the sun?

76
00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,080
Absolutely. In that reactor?
It's incredible

77
00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,400
and it goes on for all those
seconds, you know, it's impressive.

78
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The remarkable thing
is it seems routine.

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I'm sure there's a lot of work
gone into making it routine.

80
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Yeah. That's my sense of this.
As people have got used to it.

81
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Of course, there are times when we
actually put the real fuel in there

82
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and a shot like that will
be producing lots of fusion power.

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Very exciting, when that happened.

84
00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:19,200
To this day, JET holds the
world record for fusion power.

85
00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:25,480
Yet, despite decades of research
and this fleeting glimpse of fusion,

86
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no electricity will ever
make it from here to the grid.

87
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Learning how to produce
useful power from fusion

88
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remains beyond our capabilities.

89
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One thing we do know
is that, in nature,

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fusion only occurs in one place -

91
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right in the centre of stars.

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Vast celestial power houses,
like our sun.

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The road to understanding
the sun has been long.

94
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And it all began with
a remarkable piece of deduction.

95
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So, how could you begin to
find out what the sun's made of?

96
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I mean, you can't go there.

97
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It's a long long way away and
it'd be a bit hot when you arrived.

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00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:38,720
Well, actually, the story began
back in the 1660s

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00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:41,200
with the British physicist
Isaac Newton.

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He used one of these, a prism,
to look at the light from the sun.

101
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What Newton found is that
if you look at light through a prism

102
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then it splits up into its component
colours. It makes a rainbow.

103
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Now, at the time, Newton didn't
appreciate the full significance

104
00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:02,560
of his discovery,
or at least the usefulness of it.

105
00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:06,320
Through the 18th and 19th centuries,
chemists and physicists

106
00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,240
looked at the light in real detail.

107
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And what they noticed was that
the spectrum isn't continuous.

108
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It has pieces missing, it
has black lines through it.

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This was a puzzle. Why was
some of the sun's light missing?

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The answer is beautifully simple.

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Each chemical element in the sun
absorbs light

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to produce its own unique
pattern of black lines,

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known as absorption lines,
in the solar spectrum.

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A kind of fingerprint
for every element in the universe.

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That leaves you with
an interesting possibility.

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If you look at the light
from the sun and you look

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where the black lines are,

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then you can deduce exactly what
elements are present in the sun.

119
00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,680
And today, from many precision
observations of the light

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00:09:09,680 --> 00:09:12,240
from the sun,
using just this technique,

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00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:16,680
we know that the sun
is 75% hydrogen,

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00:09:16,680 --> 00:09:23,280
24% helium and about 1% the heavier
elements that make up the universe.

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Scientists had discovered what
the sun and stars were made of.

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But they were no closer to
figuring out how something

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made of the two lightest elements
in the universe -

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00:09:40,680 --> 00:09:46,000
hydrogen and helium - could emit
such vast quantities of energy.

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Progress came with
the discovery of one of

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the most famous equations
in science.

129
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Now, it took until 1905 and Einstein

130
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for the key to the sun's
energy source to be revealed.

131
00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:04,080
The equation E=MC2.

132
00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:08,200
Energy equals mass
times the speed of light squared.

133
00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:10,320
Speed of light squared,
immense number.

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00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:12,360
It's got 16 noughts after it.

135
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,520
This huge number means

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that only a small amount of mass
contains vast amounts of energy.

137
00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:30,440
Einstein had uncovered
a remarkable facet of nature.

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Mass is just an incredibly
condensed form of energy.

139
00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,640
Imagine I took a dollar bill,

140
00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:45,840
that's about a gram,
and converted that into pure energy.

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00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:49,360
That is the mass lost
in a hydrogen bomb.

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00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:55,640
So there's one hydrogen bomb's worth
of energy in every dollar bill.

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00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:04,480
When Einstein first wrote down
his famous equation, E=MC2,

144
00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:08,000
it wasn't realised at first
that that was the key

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00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,640
to understanding
the power of the sun.

146
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It took another 15 years or so

147
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for the British scientist,
Arthur Eddington, to...

148
00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:21,600
well, what seems like
put two and two together.

149
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But that would be
disrespectful to Eddington.

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He noticed a result that had
again been known for many years.

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That if you take four
hydrogen nuclei,

152
00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,960
like these rocks,

153
00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:38,640
and you can stick them together
to make one thing, to make helium.

154
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And it was known that
the helium weighed less.

155
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It was less massive than the four
hydrogen nuclei on their own.

156
00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:52,200
Eddington suggested that
the sun shines by combining hydrogen

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into helium, releasing
the missing mass as energy.

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And in fact we now know
that the sun loses

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00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:08,320
about 4 million tons of mass
every second as energy.

160
00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:13,800
Now, of course it wasn't clear at
the time that Eddington was correct.

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But correct he turned out to be.

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What he'd actually discovered was
the process that came to be known

163
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as nuclear fusion.

164
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When Eddington had suggested that
fusion might be the process

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that powers the sun, it was
pointed out to him that actually

166
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the centre of the sun was not hot
enough for fusion to happen,

167
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as physicists understood
the process at that time.

168
00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,680
What you actually need is an
understanding of quantum mechanics

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and that didn't come until later.

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But Eddington was so sure of himself

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that he said, "To those who suggest
that the centre of a star is not hot

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"enough for fusion to take place,
I say go and find a hotter place."

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Which is a very polite,
British way of saying, "Go to hell."

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00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,720
Of course, no hotter place was found

175
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:14,400
and Eddington's model for solar
fusion was adopted and refined.

176
00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:17,040
But it left a big question -

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00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:20,440
how on earth do you light
a star in the first place?

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A drive-in movie theatre.

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00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:31,040
Last time I saw one of these
was in Grease

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00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:34,280
with John Travolta
and Olivia Newton-John.

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00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:42,360
To find an answer, I've arranged
to meet a Californian astronomer

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00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:47,520
called Alex Filippenko who's going
to take me back 13.5 billion years

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00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:51,000
to a time before the stars
ever existed.

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00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:57,480
Remarkably, astronomers have
been able to collect light from

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00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:02,960
this time, just 380,000 years after
the universe began at the Big Bang.

186
00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:08,040
Oh, wow.
Here we're seeing the launch of WMAP.

187
00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:09,880
'A satellite called WMAP

188
00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:14,520
'was able to take a snapshot
of the universe in its infancy.'

189
00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,280
The different colours,
what do they represent?

190
00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:18,880
Yeah. The reds and blues

191
00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:22,680
signify slightly hotter than average
and cooler than average regions.

192
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:27,320
And those correspond with
slight differences in density.

193
00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:31,800
'In the denser regions, the primeval
constituents of the universe were

194
00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:33,840
'drawn together by gravity.'

195
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:39,280
So the universe was,
at the time of the WMAP image,

196
00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:42,200
was hydrogen, helium?
Hydrogen and helium, that's it.

197
00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:45,360
Because during the Big Bang
temperatures and pressures

198
00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:49,280
weren't high enough for very long
to produce the heavier elements.

199
00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:57,160
'Over time the regions of hot, dense
hydrogen and helium clumped together

200
00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:03,040
'to create huge stellar nurseries -
ideal places for stars to form.'

201
00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:05,840
These slight little variations
in the density

202
00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,440
led to regions that started
collapsing, clouds of gas

203
00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:13,440
that started collapsing to form
clusters of galaxies and galaxies.

204
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:17,480
And then, within them,
stars could form as well.

205
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,760
'The first generation
of stars lit up,

206
00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:26,240
'initiating fusion and bringing
an end to the universe's Dark Age.'

207
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:29,120
That would be a star there,
would it, beginning to form?

208
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,480
Yeah, that's right. You're seeing
clumps of hydrogen and helium

209
00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,600
and then gravity,
the great sculptor of the universe,

210
00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:39,800
causes these things to collapse,
forming stars like this one.

211
00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,520
'Many of these first stars
were giants,

212
00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:59,640
'hundreds of times
more massive than the sun.'

213
00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:04,360
'They burnt their hydrogen fuel
quickly

214
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:07,760
'and died in supernova explosions.

215
00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:11,440
'They were the early chemical
factories of the universe.

216
00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:17,920
'From just hydrogen and helium in
the beginning, generations of stars

217
00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:21,680
'have created every element
we're familiar with today.'

218
00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:24,440
The stars are the fusion reactors

219
00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:27,600
that produced the heavy
elements of which we are made.

220
00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:32,400
I think it's a wonderful thought,
because I look at my hand and

221
00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:36,880
that is... Well, it's red because
there is iron in it and it's made

222
00:16:36,880 --> 00:16:41,160
of carbon and oxygen and that stuff.
You're made of star stuff.

223
00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:44,000
Quite literally the
heavy elements in your body -

224
00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,400
anything other than
hydrogen and helium

225
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:50,480
was produced inside of stars
billions of years ago.

226
00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:05,120
We really are children of the stars,

227
00:17:05,120 --> 00:17:10,040
created by the simplest of
nuclear reactions - fusion.

228
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,160
And now that we understand
this remarkable process

229
00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:16,880
it offers us a tantalizing prospect.

230
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:20,920
If we could reproduce
the energy generating process

231
00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:26,000
at the heart of the sun, if
we could build a star on Earth,

232
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,720
then our energy generation problems
would be over for ever.

233
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:45,920
For now, though, we continue to
rely almost entirely on our sun.

234
00:17:54,040 --> 00:18:01,080
I suppose in a way our
civilization runs off batteries.

235
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:06,480
Over billions of years
the sunlight has been captured

236
00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,520
by stuff like this.
Then it's decayed away.

237
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:12,320
And in places like this,
on the San Andreas Fault,

238
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,800
the geological conditions
are just right to cook this

239
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:22,280
into oil that we can then pump
out of the ground and burn

240
00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:26,680
and take that condensed sunlight and
use it to power our civilization.

241
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:34,800
The energy from fossil fuels
like coal, gas and the oil here

242
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:39,560
in California have provided the
power that built the modern world.

243
00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:41,480
All of it the result of biology and

244
00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:46,960
chemistry made possible thanks to
the great fusion reactor in the sky.

245
00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:52,000
We thought we'd got lucky.

246
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,600
We'd found a seemingly
endless supply of energy.

247
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,840
Here in the heart of oil country,
I hooked up with physicist

248
00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:09,240
Rich Muller to chew over our
dependence on the black stuff.

249
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,640
I love this.

250
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:18,080
What is our love affair
with this substance, oil?

251
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:20,120
Well, you know,
I don't think of it

252
00:19:20,120 --> 00:19:22,840
so much as a love affair
as a marriage.

253
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:24,680
And a somewhat unhappy marriage.

254
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:29,240
And we seek a divorce but the
divorce is going to be expensive.

255
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:34,560
It really is a
very remarkable substance.

256
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:37,720
It has enormous energy,
enormous energy.

257
00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:41,280
So much more than
even TNT or dynamite.

258
00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,400
It doesn't leave behind any residue.

259
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:47,280
Unlike coal, you don't have to
clear the ashes out of your car.

260
00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:51,680
All it does it is spew off this,
what we used to call harmless gas,

261
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:53,880
carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.

262
00:19:54,920 --> 00:20:00,360
In terms of energy, it's got more
energy than TNT and natural gas.

263
00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:02,840
More energy
than these shotgun shells

264
00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:05,320
by a factor of almost a thousand.

265
00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:13,200
The incredible energy density
of oil is part of the reason

266
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:14,960
why fusion is not yet here.

267
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,040
It's not simply that making
the star is too difficult.

268
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:22,360
It's also that we haven't had to

269
00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:26,200
because the sun has given us
the black gold.

270
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,040
It's such a wonderful thing.

271
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,520
Only problem is...
one, we're short of it.

272
00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:36,240
And so it leads to war
in the Mid-East.

273
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:40,040
And the second problem is,
it does put out carbon dioxide

274
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:42,720
and that very likely
leads to global warming.

275
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,080
GUNSHOT

276
00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,520
This is my new sport, man.
I like this.

277
00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:01,280
Most of us on this planet, as we sit
in our air-conditioned hotel rooms

278
00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:05,360
or at home watching TV,
are still burning fossil fuels.

279
00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:08,800
As a result,
the carbon dioxide we are releasing

280
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:11,840
continues to warm the planet.

281
00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:14,040
Quite how this will
change our world,

282
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:17,600
and what this means for our
civilisation, no one yet knows.

283
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:23,680
But what's strange is even though
we do know our demand for energy

284
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:27,040
is unbalancing the climate,
the world cannot agree

285
00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:30,280
on how our species should
power the homes,

286
00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,040
factories and farms of the future.

287
00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:38,680
In search of an answer
I've come to San Francisco,

288
00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:41,480
to the headquarters of
a wind power research company,

289
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:43,160
to meet its chief engineer.

290
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,880
I met Saul Griffith about a year
ago, and I wanted to talk to him

291
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:52,040
in this film because he's one
of the few people I've met

292
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:54,680
that takes the emotion
out of the energy debate.

293
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:58,640
He just speaks in
raw facts and figures.

294
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:02,600
And he's got an office in a control
tower on a disused military base

295
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:04,280
which is...

296
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,960
Here we are on this finite

297
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:10,800
little bowl that's spinning
through the universe.

298
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:15,920
There is a limit to how much
power per square metre we can get.

299
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:17,760
We shouldn't be afraid
of that limit,

300
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,360
but we should certainly
try to operate within it.

301
00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:22,400
Let's as quickly as possible

302
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:27,480
get the debate about energy away
from emotional and qualitative
and polar bear issues,

303
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:29,720
and to a very rational,

304
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:32,200
"what do we have to do,
how do we get this done?"

305
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:34,600
Saul's response was to begin
at home.

306
00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:40,080
He wanted to understand exactly
how much energy he uses.

307
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:41,600
I'm a bicycle commuter,

308
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,360
I use public transport,
I run a wind energy company.

309
00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:46,160
I should be a good human, right?

310
00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,200
But I didn't actually know,
numerically, if I was good.

311
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,960
So I counted up all the energy
my lifestyle uses.

312
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,200
I can tell you the
amount of power it takes

313
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,480
to have the New York Times
delivered,

314
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:58,840
how much power it takes
to have a hot shower.

315
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,560
I know how much power I use
flying around the place

316
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:03,840
to talk to people like you.

317
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,760
I know how much power I use driving.
And I was a little shocked.

318
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,280
I actually use more than the
average American.

319
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:14,920
I'm one of the planet fuckers.
So I am right now a hypocrite.

320
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:17,760
Here I am talking to you
about all of this,

321
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,320
but I'm using way more
than the average US person.

322
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,160
That means that this
halo of light behind me you see

323
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:25,600
is not actually genius.

324
00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:29,040
That's the 300 light bulbs
that are burning constantly

325
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,240
24 hours a day, seven days a week.

326
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:34,520
That's how much power
my lifestyle uses.

327
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,600
The average American
uses 11.4 kilowatts.

328
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,680
The global average is 2.2 kilowatts.

329
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,040
Which means the world's
total energy consumption

330
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:54,200
is currently around 13 terawatts,
or 13 million million watts.

331
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:03,240
To understand the scale of the
problem, I posed a question to Saul.

332
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:06,560
What would it take to share
the world's energy equally,

333
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,240
and give all six billion of us
five kilowatts each?

334
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:15,640
A global total of 30 terawatts.

335
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:22,880
And let's see if we can achieve
this, without fossil fuels, by 2035.

336
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,400
Let's shoot for this
morally pleasing level.

337
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:26,920
This one.

338
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,280
We'll call this the Brian Agenda.

339
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:33,840
Well, yeah, because the Brian Agenda
is to allow everybody on the Earth

340
00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,960
to live a lifestyle approximately
like mine.

341
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,560
'In the west, we'd have to
get used to using a lot less.

342
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:44,440
'But in the developing world,

343
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,240
'this extra energy could provide
roads and schools and hospitals,

344
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:50,720
'everything we take for granted.'

345
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,200
So let's go with that. It's hugely
optimistic, but let's do it.

346
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:55,760
Let's go to five kilowatts.

347
00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:59,400
'The next step is to figure out
just how much clean energy

348
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,280
'that is for the entire world.'

349
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:04,120
Thirty terawatts of energy

350
00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:07,800
has to come from some
new clean source or sources.

351
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,480
OK, 30 terawatts, 25 years.

352
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:12,760
I'm totally behind the Brian Agenda.

353
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:17,960
So, what are the implications
of my eponymous plan

354
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,760
to make the world
a more equitable place?

355
00:25:25,120 --> 00:25:28,240
How about generating a sixth
of our power, five terawatts,

356
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,240
from conventional nuclear?

357
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:34,200
So we need
5,000 nuclear reactors in 25 years.

358
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:39,120
That's two and a half full
size nuclear reactors every week

359
00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:40,640
for the next 25 years.

360
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:42,880
Every three minutes you
need to install

361
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,160
a full size three megawatt
wind turbine.

362
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:47,960
That's gonna be a couple of percent
of the land area of the world

363
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:49,440
that has wind turbines on it.

364
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:55,520
Solar at 10 terawatts, 250 square
metres of solar cell every second -

365
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,960
second after second after second
after second for the next 25 years.

366
00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:02,920
Biofuels, two terawatts.
This one looks a little scary.

367
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,960
That's something like four
Olympic swimming pools

368
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,320
full of genetically engineered
bacteria,

369
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:10,040
every second
for the next 25 years.

370
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:11,680
And so on.

371
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:16,040
It's becoming clear that
freeing ourselves of our
fossil fuel addiction,

372
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,920
let alone creating
a more equitable world,

373
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,680
is gonna require a
massive global effort.

374
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:25,360
And we haven't even factored in
the inevitable population growth.

375
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:31,600
So, look, this is possible to
realise the Brian Agenda.

376
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:35,040
But it's a pretty radical programme.

377
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:39,360
This is like the re-tooling of
manufacture for World War II,

378
00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:41,800
except Britain, Germany,
Japan and America

379
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:43,240
are playing on the same team.

380
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:48,760
And every week that passes by,
when the world fails to build
these alternative sources,

381
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:52,800
means Saul's numbers
just keep on getting bigger.

382
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,200
Could fusion power help?

383
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,800
Unfortunately, right now for nuclear
fusion, it's a question mark.

384
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:00,640
We don't know whether it works.

385
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,120
But the sensible thing would
be to increase investment?

386
00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:05,080
Certainly if we nail fusion,

387
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:07,840
that looks like the Get Out
Of Jail Free card for humanity.

388
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:18,560
The aspiration to raise everybody up
to a minimum standard of energy use,

389
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:23,880
that is comparable with the
energy use in the west,

390
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,280
is not beyond
the realms of possibility.

391
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:29,680
But a global consensus

392
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:34,360
that we have to stop our destructive
use of fossil fuels, is emerging.

393
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:41,840
What I'm not clear about is whether
fusion is probably so far away

394
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,240
that it won't have an
impact on the first phase
of the energy crisis,

395
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:46,600
the phase we're in now.

396
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,640
So do we need to focus
our investment efforts

397
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:54,800
on building more efficient power
stations, building solar and wind?

398
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,520
Or, if we are convinced that
fusion will work

399
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,520
and the technological
difficulties can be overcome

400
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,400
on a very short timescale,
then do we really go for it?

401
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:09,480
Do we say we're gonna spend
10 or 100 times more R&D money,

402
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,800
worldwide, on fusion now?

403
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:17,360
I believe we must at least
try as hard as we possibly can.

404
00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:22,840
After all, we have already built a
star, but for wholly different ends.

405
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,440
During World War II,

406
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:39,280
a generation of the finest
scientific and engineering minds

407
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,040
were brought together
in the New Mexico desert

408
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,920
to work on the top secret
Manhattan Project.

409
00:28:56,040 --> 00:29:03,760
This is it, the place where the
nuclear age began, the Trinity site,

410
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:08,680
where the world's first nuclear
bomb was exploded, July 16th 1945.

411
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,720
It's where the power of
the nucleus was unlocked.

412
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,560
In just five years,

413
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,400
they'd learned how to access
the power of the nucleus

414
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,400
by splitting nuclei apart.

415
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,000
They created a fission bomb.

416
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,240
They soon realised that they
could release even more energy

417
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,720
if they could fuse the
nuclei and the fuel together.

418
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,800
Thing is, the fuel
is positively charged.

419
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:46,600
And that means that as it comes
closer together, it repels away.

420
00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:49,320
What you're fighting
is electro-magnetism.

421
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:52,400
But if the nuclei can be brought
close enough together,

422
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,440
against the repulsive
electro-magnetic force,

423
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:59,760
another force of nature,
the strong nuclear force,

424
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:02,840
will take over and
bind the nuclei together.

425
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,880
Fusion.

426
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,000
So what you need to do is get
these things moving fast enough

427
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,400
that they get close enough for the
strong nuclear force to kick in,

428
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:14,360
short range, to lock them together.

429
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,320
Now, getting things moving fast
is another way of saying

430
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:19,120
you need to make them hot.

431
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:22,200
That's what temperature is, the
measure of the speed of the fuel.

432
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,880
And the bomb builders
had just the tool.

433
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:31,120
They would use the incredible
temperatures and densities
of a fission bomb

434
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:36,240
to overcome the electromagnetic
force and achieve fusion.

435
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:41,240
NEWSREEL MUSIC

436
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,400
ORIGINAL ANNOUNCER:
This is the first full scale test

437
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:47,760
of a hydrogen device.

438
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:51,040
If the reaction goes,
we're in the thermo-nuclear era!

439
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:58,480
Just eight years after entering
the nuclear age at Trinity,

440
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:03,160
they were at the brink of lighting
the first ever star on Earth.'

441
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:06,480
SITE PA:
Now 30 seconds to zero time.

442
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,360
Ivy Mike, as the test was known,

443
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:16,000
was the first full-scale attempt to
detonate a fusion or hydrogen bomb.

444
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,800
One of the scientists who witnessed
the birth of the nuclear age

445
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,120
is Sterling Colgate.

446
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:27,320
We can simulate
what goes on in a star.

447
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:31,320
In... It isn't quite the laboratory,
but at the test range,

448
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:36,880
or some exquisitely beautiful
atoll that we blow all to shit,

449
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:38,600
if you don't mind the word.

450
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:41,680
Cos it's just ghastly
what all of that did!

451
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:43,800
And it's a lesson
for the whole world.

452
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:47,080
Never, never, never
let that happen again.

453
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:51,960
Five, four, three, two, one, zero!

454
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,840
They had unleashed
the most powerful force in nature.

455
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:04,960
This happens in the stars,
it happens in our sun.

456
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:06,800
If it didn't, we wouldn't be here.

457
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,000
And so you can't turn the clock back.

458
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:10,840
You can't deny the physics.

459
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:17,040
It's there. What we have to do
is deny the use of a fusion bomb,

460
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,840
a hydrogen bomb as it's called,

461
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:24,640
in any anger whatsoever.

462
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:29,360
We absolutely have to make a
massive commitment as a culture

463
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,240
that this can never, never happen.

464
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,960
However we also need to
take that knowledge

465
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:37,880
and use it to generate power.

466
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,080
And make the power
that we need to go on.

467
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:44,040
Future lab is completely gone.

468
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:49,080
Nothing there but water and what
appears to be a deep crater.

469
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:53,840
Whatever you think about
the power you can extract
from the atomic nucleus,

470
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:57,080
the simple fact,
the scientific fact is,

471
00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,320
there is no greater
power source in the universe.

472
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:02,600
It's the power source
that powers the sun,

473
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:05,640
it's the power source
that powers the stars

474
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:10,600
and it can be the power source
that powers our civilisation.

475
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:16,880
What's needed is a Manhattan Project
type effort

476
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:23,440
to unlock the immense
energy store of the atomic nucleus.

477
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,040
But this time for peaceful purposes.

478
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:31,720
Today, fusion scientists
continue to face the same challenge.

479
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,160
They must overcome the
electromagnetic force

480
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:38,680
by creating incredibly high
temperatures and pressures,

481
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,440
but in a much more controlled way.

482
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:49,960
Currently, the world spends only
£1 billion a year on the problem.

483
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:54,360
In the UK, we spent more
money on ringtones last year

484
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:58,160
than we contributed to the
global fusion efforts.

485
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:01,080
You've got to ask yourself
whether our civilization

486
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:02,840
has got its priorities right.

487
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:10,480
Much of fusion funding
still goes into bomb research.

488
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:14,240
But these days, the demolition
of South Pacific islands

489
00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:16,200
is out of fashion.

490
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:20,960
Instead, the generals hire
the world's most powerful
bomb simulator.

491
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,840
Well, welcome, Brian.
This is the Z Machine.

492
00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:29,360
Located on a high security base
just outside Albuquerque,

493
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:33,880
the Z Machine, as it's known,
is run by John Porter.

494
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:37,640
So, this is the largest
pulse power device in the world.

495
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:40,560
It's also the largest
X-ray generator in the world.

496
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:45,760
So in about an hour we're going
to discharge about 26 million amps

497
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:50,520
through a little
thimble-sized cylinder of wires.

498
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:52,320
This is, you know, 100 times bigger

499
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,440
than the instantaneous power
consumption of the United States,

500
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:56,520
at least.

501
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:58,720
So, again, just phenomenal amounts.

502
00:34:58,720 --> 00:35:01,440
But for very short periods of time.

503
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:03,680
With all this power at its disposal,

504
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:08,160
the Z Machine is able to recreate
the conditions inside an H bomb.

505
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:11,840
And so at this point, the
conductors are inside a vacuum.

506
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:16,240
And then they're converging all
to the axis and about, I dunno,
10 feet down there

507
00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:19,080
is where all the current
gets concentrated in the thin wires.

508
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,640
Nearby, John shows me a target

509
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,960
that will sit at the centre of
the machine.

510
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:28,360
So the 26 million amps
is flowing right along there.

511
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,400
And then you can barely see the
array of wires.

512
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,920
There's probably like 300 wires here.

513
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,320
They look like a spider's web.
Exactly. Absolutely tiny.

514
00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:42,640
When it fires, these wires are
rapidly vaporised.

515
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:47,600
And the strong magnetic field
generated by the enormous
electric currents

516
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:50,880
force the wire remnants to implode.

517
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,280
This is known as a Z-pinch.

518
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:56,680
And it's this that creates
the conditions

519
00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:58,760
for nuclear fusion to occur.

520
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:00,800
The diagnosticians are back down
from re-arming

521
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:02,920
and we're gonna continue
with our check list.

522
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:06,720
The radiation generated
by this machine is extreme,

523
00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:10,120
and it can, in certain places,
create lethal doses of radiation.

524
00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:14,840
So it's not a good idea to be stood
here when you do that? That's right!

525
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:20,320
So it's about to get dangerous,
so we'd better take off! Right.

526
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:22,320
And we've got red flashing lights,

527
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:26,160
all the signs that it's better to
leave. Yeah. Very exciting.

528
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,400
So we do about one shot a day.

529
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,960
So this has already been locked up.
I'll take you to the control room.

530
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:37,960
The X-rays are so intense
that people and video cameras

531
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:42,320
are only safe inside the
specially-shielded control room.

532
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,320
You guys ready? We're ready for
you to arm. OK, we're still armed.

533
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:48,760
Attention building 983,
Z is preparing to fire.

534
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:50,760
We are starting ZBL countdown.

535
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:52,720
We are counting, T-minus 135.

536
00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:54,800
We are charging.

537
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,880
They're gonna take it up
to 82,000 volts.

538
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:00,120
We are charging the MTGs.

539
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:04,360
When it fires, this vast brute
of a machine is powerful enough

540
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:08,840
to create a minor Earthquake
that's felt across the entire site.

541
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,080
Charge complete, arming to fire.

542
00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:12,480
T-zero...

543
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:17,400
DISTANT BOOM
Trigger! Whoa!

544
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,800
Only one image of the blast has
ever been captured.

545
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,200
This is that image.

546
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,720
It's called a flash-over,

547
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:31,000
the result of the ferocious
electromagnetic pulse

548
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,440
as lightning dances
around the metals in the room.

549
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:36,640
Thanks, John.

550
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,200
Did you guys trigger? Cool.

551
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:40,800
That was it, it's a success.

552
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:43,880
I felt the ground move.

553
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:45,640
I think you did too, Brian?

554
00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:48,160
Yeah. And heard it out there,
actually!

555
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,760
All right, let's go look and see
what's left after the shot.

556
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:03,520
So this was all fairly pristine,
at one point, stainless steel.

557
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:05,800
It's quite remarkable.
It's almost like the...

558
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:09,000
Well, it is the conditions
in an atomic bomb, isn't it?

559
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:12,880
Well, that's the reason
these facilities were first created.

560
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,080
So, that's why it looks like
it's been in a nuclear war? Exactly!

561
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:18,160
Cos it has! Right.

562
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:23,360
A relic of the Cold War,
the Z Machine is being re-invented.

563
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,240
It turns out
that this bomb simulator

564
00:38:26,240 --> 00:38:30,840
could perhaps be turned into a
peaceful source of fusion energy.

565
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:36,280
It costs a few tens of
thousands of dollars to machine.

566
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:40,320
All the parts we just blew up
in a few billionths of a second.

567
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,280
The big hurdle is doing it a
few times a second

568
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:48,320
or a few times a minute,
depending on the yields,

569
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:50,880
to get enough power to be useful.

570
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:54,240
Then you've got a power station.
Exactly. It's the last few feet,

571
00:38:54,240 --> 00:38:56,000
the stuff that gets blown up.

572
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:59,200
Coming up with new ideas on
how to rapidly replace that.

573
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:04,080
Currently it takes at least a
full working day

574
00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:07,120
to prepare the Z Machine
for another shot.

575
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:12,320
But if they can learn how to replace
all the hardware that gets destroyed
quickly enough,

576
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:13,960
in less than a minute,

577
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:17,000
then it's possible that a machine
similar to this

578
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,720
could one day
produce a steady stream of energy.

579
00:39:20,720 --> 00:39:23,480
But it's a tall order.

580
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:27,000
We believe this technology that
you're seeing here is the simplest,

581
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,120
most elegant and efficient technology

582
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:32,320
that one could imagine
to create fusion.

583
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,280
But no one knows, you know,
what's really possible. Right?

584
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:41,120
The Z Machine proves it is
experimentally possible

585
00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:45,680
to light a star on Earth by
initiating a controlled explosion

586
00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:47,680
around a fusion fuel.

587
00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:52,360
So it does recreate
the conditions that are present

588
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:55,280
at the heart of a star.

589
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:57,760
It's also produced fusion.

590
00:39:57,760 --> 00:39:59,880
But most of all it's simple.

591
00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:04,800
That is the most impressive
thing to me. It was, or it is,

592
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:07,400
in a way, 19th century technology.

593
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:10,000
And that's not to denigrate
the machine at all.

594
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:11,880
It's a very simple idea.

595
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:15,520
And I suppose if you want
to build a power station,

596
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:19,440
if you really want technology you
can produce on an industrial scale,

597
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:22,600
then you want to do it
in as simple a way as possible.

598
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:27,920
And that's because
the scientists are facing

599
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:32,960
perhaps the most difficult
engineering challenge in history.

600
00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:37,080
To produce a viable power plant,
they must engineer machines

601
00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:42,240
that can not only create and
withstand the violent conditions
found in stars,

602
00:40:42,240 --> 00:40:46,840
but that are capable of creating
hundreds of these exploding stars,

603
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,160
every minute.

604
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:53,400
Only then will they be able to
extract a steady supply of energy

605
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:57,200
and create significant amounts
of electricity for the grid.

606
00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:03,560
No wonder fusion power is
taking so long to come online,

607
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:06,800
even though we've understood this
process at the sub-atomic level

608
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,280
for well over half a century.

609
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:13,640
This is how fusion works in the sun.

610
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,120
You start off with protons.

611
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,320
Nuclei of hydrogen.

612
00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:23,240
And if those protons can
get close enough together,

613
00:41:23,240 --> 00:41:27,800
so the strong nuclear force, short
range force can lock them together,

614
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:31,320
then one of those protons
can turn into a neutron.

615
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,800
And two particles
called the positron and neutrino

616
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,120
come flying out.

617
00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:41,000
And that makes an
isotope of hydrogen,

618
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:43,280
something called deuterium.

619
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:46,960
And about a 7,000th
of the hydrogen in your water

620
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:48,560
is actually deuterium.

621
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:50,160
So it's pretty common on Earth.

622
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:54,200
That process takes a
long, long time.

623
00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:56,240
In fact, for a single proton
in the sun,

624
00:41:56,240 --> 00:41:58,800
then it would have to wait
billions of years

625
00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:01,600
to get close enough
to undergo that process.

626
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:05,120
So that's the blockage in
fusion in the sun, if you like.

627
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:07,720
Once that's happened and
the deuterium's formed,

628
00:42:07,720 --> 00:42:09,560
then everything goes very quickly.

629
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:13,000
Another proton can come
and meet the deuterium

630
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:16,800
and that turns the deuterium
into helium-3.

631
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:19,960
And actually a photon particle
of light comes flying out.

632
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:26,160
And then two of these helium-3s
can stick together into helium-4,

633
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:28,440
and a couple of protons
come flying out.

634
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:32,480
So that's the process by which
energy is released in the sun.

635
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,720
It's the process that allows
the sun to shine.

636
00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:41,840
On Earth though,
we have an advantage.

637
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:45,640
We don't have to go through the
lengthy process of making deuterium

638
00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:47,600
because the oceans are full of it.

639
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:51,920
A rich seam of energy
that could supply the entire world

640
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:53,800
for millions of years.

641
00:42:55,480 --> 00:43:00,280
It's this tantalising promise
of effectively unlimited energy

642
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:04,320
that has inspired another approach
designed to initiate fusion.

643
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,560
At the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in California,

644
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,960
they're attempting to create a
stream of exploding stars

645
00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:20,080
using nothing more
than a light beam.

646
00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:22,240
Wow!

647
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,080
The governor yesterday,
and me today!

648
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:34,600
VIDEO NARRATOR:
The National Ignition Facility

649
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:37,160
will do what has never
before been accomplished.

650
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:43,520
To create a self-sustained
nuclear fusion reaction

651
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:45,320
in a safe, controlled setting.

652
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:51,280
At the National Ignition Facility,
or NIF,

653
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:56,120
they've built the world's largest
and most powerful laser.

654
00:43:56,120 --> 00:44:02,440
Showing me around this enormous site
is fusion scientist Eric Storm.

655
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:05,440
Is that the laser? Yeah, stop a
second. It looks like a factory.

656
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:15,880
The 500 trillion watt laser beam
travels half a kilometre,

657
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:19,400
guided by a series of lenses
and mirrors,

658
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:24,080
a pulse of light
with a thousand times the
instantaneous amount of energy

659
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:27,080
in America's national grid.

660
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:31,720
This shows the actual size
of one of these laser beams.

661
00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:34,040
They all come from one single source

662
00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:36,760
and at the end get focused
onto this fusion target.

663
00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:40,360
TWO-WAY RADIO:
We're trying to get hold
of Sopado or Seranowski.

664
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:42,560
Copy.

665
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:44,480
OK.

666
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,200
You can see it is somewhat more
impressive. It's incredible.

667
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:51,360
You know, this looks like a
facility that creates stars.

668
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:56,240
It does, doesn't it? It looks like
it does what it says it does.

669
00:44:56,240 --> 00:45:01,360
These aluminium square tubes here,

670
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:03,600
that's where the laser beams
come in.

671
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:07,680
There are 96 beams on the top
and 96 on the bottom.

672
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:10,800
There are focusing lenses that take
these beams

673
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:13,920
and focus them down to a human hair.

674
00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:16,600
That would give you quite a suntan,
wouldn't it?

675
00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:19,000
Yeah, you would?!

676
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:20,920
I do not recommend it.

677
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:27,520
Let's go and look inside
the chamber.

678
00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:34,880
INDISTINCT VOICE ON RADIO

679
00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:39,120
Right, you're looking inside
the star chamber. Look at that.

680
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:43,160
INDISTINCT VOICE ON RADIO

681
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:47,080
The target will be sitting...
You can see the... It's moving in.

682
00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:52,520
That's the one that will hold the
target in the centre of the chamber.

683
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:55,400
Which is the seed of the star.
The seed of the star, absolutely.

684
00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:59,080
BELL RINGS

685
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:04,160
'The man in charge of
the most powerful laser on Earth

686
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:06,520
'is Ed Moses.'

687
00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:10,200
I want to talk about the target
because this is the...

688
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:14,040
First, how much energy do you get
out of one of those targets?

689
00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:17,280
It's an interesting question.
This target is pretty small.

690
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:20,160
That little ball is where the fuel
for this target is.

691
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:22,520
Cos this is where the challenge is,
right?

692
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:24,080
The design of this thing.

693
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:27,600
There's a lot of challenges.
You have to put the laser together,

694
00:46:27,600 --> 00:46:31,840
you have to get all those lasers...
You've done that, though. Yeah.

695
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:35,640
We have to get those 192 beams
steered very precisely
into this target.

696
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:39,400
The laser light is coming down
and up on it

697
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:43,640
in a very symmetrical fashion
so we make a very uniform oven.

698
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:49,480
That little ball starts collapsing
at a million miles an hour.

699
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:52,240
When it starts moving,

700
00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:54,880
the hydrodynamic forces on it
are such that

701
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,240
it could start ripping itself apart.

702
00:46:57,240 --> 00:47:00,760
So you have to make it come together
really nicely and smoothly

703
00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:03,640
till it's about the diameter
of your hair.

704
00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:05,720
When you do,
you'll have temperatures

705
00:47:05,720 --> 00:47:07,480
of around 100 million degrees

706
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,120
and pressures of around
100 billion atmospheres.

707
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,680
It'll be about a hundred times
as dense as lead

708
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:16,000
and that's when it will light up
and this is not chemical burn.

709
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,760
This is nuclear burn,
that's what's so interesting.

710
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:21,800
You get around 30 million times
more energy per mass

711
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:25,040
out of a nuclear burning device
than a chemical burning device.

712
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:30,560
But no laser-powered fusion device
has yet to achieve this.

713
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:34,720
So far, it's proved difficult
to focus all the power

714
00:47:34,720 --> 00:47:37,960
onto the target
at precisely the same time.

715
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:42,960
Only if this can be overcome
will the fuel target be heated

716
00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:45,080
and condensed enough
for fusion to occur.

717
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:50,560
This is the Holy Grail -
the quest for ignition.

718
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:55,920
So you had this star that's about
the diameter of a human hair

719
00:47:55,920 --> 00:47:58,160
for a billionth of a second.

720
00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:02,000
Yeah, it's star power on Earth.
That's what we say.

721
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,560
If we can do it a few times a second

722
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:08,200
then you get the kind of energy
that comes out of a power plant.

723
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:11,040
NIF is not a power plant,

724
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:17,400
but this vast experiment may be
on the brink of igniting a star.

725
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:19,200
It is our future.

726
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,680
When is that future
going to arrive?

727
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:25,160
What would you say? I know
it's difficult to speculate,

728
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:27,360
but 10 years, 20 years, 50 years?

729
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:34,640
I think from the point of view of
proving fusion in this laboratory,

730
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:37,640
our goal is to do that
in the next two or three years.

731
00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:41,080
Sometimes, people talk about fusion
as being 50 years away.

732
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,680
Right now, I look at it
as two or three years away.

733
00:48:45,720 --> 00:48:52,040
By 2011, the world should know
whether laser-powered fusion
will achieve ignition.

734
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:58,360
Should they fail, then all
humanity's hopes for fusion

735
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:00,920
will shift to another group
of scientists.

736
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:06,400
These researchers believe
our future energy will come,

737
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:10,200
not from a stream
of short-lived mini stars,

738
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:15,760
but from learning how to create
and hold the very matter

739
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:19,400
of the sun for days
and months on end.

740
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:22,240
They too face
a tremendous challenge

741
00:49:22,240 --> 00:49:26,760
for they seek to control the least
well understood state of matter -

742
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:28,840
plasma.

743
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:34,640
If you heat up any atoms
or molecules,

744
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:38,600
what happens very quickly is that
the electrons around the nucleus

745
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:41,560
start to boil off.

746
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:46,280
The temperature's too high
for them to stick in orbit
around the nucleus

747
00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:49,680
and that is the state
of most of the universe,

748
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:53,400
including the state
of our nearby star,

749
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:57,640
that incredibly hot ball
of plasma - the sun.

750
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:07,720
Producing long-lived plasmas

751
00:50:07,720 --> 00:50:10,880
is the oldest line
of fusion power research.

752
00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:18,160
For 50 years, a small group of
countries have run prototype
fusion reactors

753
00:50:18,160 --> 00:50:22,240
in an attempt to extract energy
from stable plasma.

754
00:50:22,240 --> 00:50:25,360
The very latest country
to join this club

755
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:26,720
is South Korea.

756
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:32,120
Here we are - the National Fusion
Research Centre.

757
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:35,720
Strange thing as well, it's in
the middle of an industrial estate.

758
00:50:35,720 --> 00:50:41,400
When you think of a nuclear reactor
facility, you tend to think of it
out in a field somewhere,

759
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:43,680
but it's right in the middle
of the city.

760
00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:56,400
Good morning, how are you?
Good to see you.

761
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:00,760
OK, I'll show you the KSTAR.
Thank you.

762
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:05,160
'KSTAR, like the jet reactor
in Oxfordshire,

763
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:08,800
'is a type of fusion reactor
called a tokamak.'

764
00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:12,200
It's a beautiful device. Ah-ha.
It's clean.

765
00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:15,400
'It was completed in late 2007

766
00:51:15,400 --> 00:51:20,960
'and I've been invited to see
the device before it
begins operation later this year

767
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:23,680
'by its chief creator, Dr Lee.'

768
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:26,000
He used to be a vacuum engineer.

769
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:28,160
Thank you. You can go.

770
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:30,240
Bye.

771
00:51:30,240 --> 00:51:31,680
Thanks.

772
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:41,200
'What makes KSTAR unique are the
advanced super-conducting magnets

773
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,120
'that hold the plasma in place.

774
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:48,880
'They cool to minus 269 degrees.

775
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:51,400
'At this temperature,

776
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:55,760
'the magnets have
no electrical resistance,

777
00:51:55,760 --> 00:52:00,800
'which means KSTAR needs
a lot less power to run
than its predecessors.'

778
00:52:00,800 --> 00:52:05,840
What's the thing you hope to learn
with this machine?

779
00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:09,280
So far, all the tokamak
fusion reactor

780
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:11,320
runs for
a very short period of time.

781
00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:12,840
A few seconds.

782
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:18,840
So we, scientifically, we have
proven fusion can be realisable.

783
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:23,840
Yeah. But on the other hand,
we have to make energy

784
00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:27,160
so this machine has to run
a long way, you know? Mmm.

785
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:29,800
Eventually, nine months
and ten months continuously.

786
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:31,760
So, you would contain the plasma?

787
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:33,960
Yeah. What, months at a time?

788
00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:35,920
Yes.

789
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:42,000
'KSTAR aims to show that plasma
can be routinely created and held

790
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,560
'for long periods deep within
the heart of the machine

791
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:50,120
'in the way needed for
a commercial fusion power station.'

792
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:52,560
This is a very exciting moment,
actually.

793
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:57,920
I never imagined I'd get to climb
inside the reactor, which is...

794
00:52:57,920 --> 00:53:00,160
unbelievable.

795
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:04,120
It's not easy access!

796
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:05,840
How did he do that?

797
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:07,320
HE LAUGHS

798
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:08,680
Oof!

799
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:12,800
This is brilliant, I've got to say.

800
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:17,240
Well, this is the inside of KSTAR.

801
00:53:17,240 --> 00:53:21,160
When this is operating, where my
head is, there will be a plasma,

802
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:25,400
10, 20 times hotter
than the core of the sun.

803
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:29,320
And it works, basically,
like a home microwave oven,

804
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:31,960
except that six megawatts
is the power consumption of

805
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:36,120
2,000 domestic houses. So...

806
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:37,520
it's a remarkable place.

807
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:41,160
The temperature here, 20 times
hotter than the centre of the sun.

808
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:46,040
Below my feet, where the magnets
are, minus 269 degrees,

809
00:53:46,040 --> 00:53:50,840
which is something like
the temperature, if you go
outside the Earth's atmosphere,

810
00:53:50,840 --> 00:53:55,040
and outside, actually, to the most
distant planets, incredibly cold.

811
00:53:56,480 --> 00:53:59,280
And this is one of the best bits,
in a way,

812
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:01,440
it's the television camera.

813
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:06,920
And they've already
had some success.

814
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:08,800
Just before my visit,

815
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:11,960
they ran the machine
for the first time.

816
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:13,440
It's not fusion yet,

817
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:17,240
but an important step
towards KSTAR's goal

818
00:54:17,240 --> 00:54:22,040
of holding 100,000 degree plasma
for five minutes.

819
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:23,920
If they can achieve this,

820
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:28,000
it will be a significant landmark
on the road to fusion power.

821
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:32,960
Will you get net energy
out of KSTAR?

822
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:35,160
KSTAR will be...

823
00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:37,560
kind of break even machine.

824
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:41,040
So, energy consumption to really
support the whole system,

825
00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:46,120
and the energy out is almost,
you know, one to one, like.

826
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:49,080
But an economical power plant,

827
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:54,640
we are now considering, is about
30 to 50 times of this is necessary.

828
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:56,480
Means one watt comes in,

829
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:59,080
and 30 to 50 comes out.

830
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:01,120
Then, we can really make it in

831
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:04,920
the reasonable cost of electricity
from the fusion device.

832
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:09,200
The South Koreans have built KSTAR

833
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:12,400
as their contribution
to an international project

834
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:18,400
to build the biggest fusion
reactor ever attempted,
called ITER,

835
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:23,400
which is about to begin
construction in Southern France.

836
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:28,640
Really, this is the start of
the final phase of R&D towards
fusion. I think so. Yes.

837
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:31,040
We have done 50 years
of R&D in fusion,

838
00:55:31,040 --> 00:55:33,400
fusing lots of machines, many places.

839
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:35,640
Now, this is endgame. Yes.

840
00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:40,680
So, now, put together all
the knowledge of these 50 years

841
00:55:40,680 --> 00:55:47,280
and now, merging into this, KSTAR,
ITER, and finally, commercialisation.

842
00:55:51,640 --> 00:55:55,880
This machine, having seen it, means
more to me than I thought it would

843
00:55:55,880 --> 00:55:59,120
because I really get the sense
that if this doesn't work,

844
00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:04,520
then, we're in, literally,
real trouble.

845
00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:08,640
Hopefully, it's all engineering,
and it's all practice.

846
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:11,440
It's not simple
because it will take decades.

847
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:14,480
But it's not a fundamental issue,

848
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:16,960
because if it were
a fundamental issue,

849
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,640
then this kind of fusion
would drop out of the race,

850
00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,040
and we'd be left with one,
with laser fusion.

851
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:25,640
And for me, if you think
that fusion is the future of
our civilisation,

852
00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:27,480
that's a big risk.

853
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:31,040
So, good luck, KSTAR.

854
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:47,840
If you'd asked me
before I made this film -

855
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:51,680
what are the greatest achievements
in the history of humanity?,

856
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:54,000
I would say,
the moments when we overreach,

857
00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:57,240
the moments when we set foot
on the moon,

858
00:56:57,240 --> 00:57:00,720
or took photographs of Saturn
and Jupiter and distant planets.

859
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:05,040
Building a fusion power station
that works

860
00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:08,600
and delivers electrons
into the power grid of a city

861
00:57:08,600 --> 00:57:10,520
will be the next step

862
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:13,080
in the evolution
of our civilisation.

863
00:57:13,080 --> 00:57:16,680
It's just about
beyond our capabilities,

864
00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:19,720
technologically and scientifically,
at the moment.

865
00:57:19,720 --> 00:57:23,200
And that's surely
the best place to be.

866
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:27,240
That's the place you want to stand,
as a human being.

867
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:30,280
So, I would celebrate
the fusion power station builders

868
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:33,120
in a way that I wouldn't have done
before we made this film.

869
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:46,680
So, when can we expect fusion power
from the mains?

870
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:50,000
All right. My prediction.
I hate being a futurist.

871
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:56,080
# This time tomorrow,
where will we be?... #

872
00:57:56,080 --> 00:57:59,280
2036, June.

873
00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:02,880
That's when it COULD be done

874
00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:04,080
with an exerted effort.

875
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:05,840
2027.

876
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:09,240
I don't think it will happen
until then.

877
00:58:09,240 --> 00:58:11,800
# This time tomorrow

878
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:14,320
# What will we know...? #

879
00:58:16,560 --> 00:58:19,200
There's a 50% chance of it working,

880
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:24,000
20 years after you seriously
fund the science.

881
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:25,560
So, it's time for a commitment.

882
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:29,000
# I'll leave the sun behind me

883
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:35,400
# And I'll watch the clouds
as they sadly pass me by

884
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:38,600
# Seven miles below me

885
00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:45,320
# I can see the world
and it ain't so big at all

886
00:58:47,240 --> 00:58:50,280
# This time tomorrow

887
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:52,560
# What will we see...? #