fission

And rather than burn it to release energy, they use nuclear fission, a process that unlocks the energy stored inside a tiny, tiny package: the nucleus of an atom.

As part of its energy surge, China has pushed rapid investment into the only technology that currently can decarbonize the planet at scale: nuclear fission and fusion.

Scientists realized that if they could break apart an atom’s nucleus, it would release energy as it split, a process they named fission.

In the longer term, Google is looking toward nuclear fusion as opposed to fission: While the latter is used currently in power plants, the former can provide much more energy in a potentially safer process.

The vessel is the core of the reactor where fission takes place, and the only part of a nuclear plant that can’t be replaced.