How to polarize light atoms and its advantages for fusion reactors

Polarized beams and targets are an important tool in nuclear physics to study the spin dependence of nuclear forces at accelerators such as COSY@FZ Jülich. For this reason, various polarization methods have been developed in recent decades for hydrogen, deuterium and helium-3, which are now also used in other fields. This knowledge could be used, for example, in the generation of energy by nuclear fusion, as the cross-sections of the various fusion reactions are also strongly spin-dependent. This could considerably increase the energy yield or significantly reduce operating costs, for example by influencing the trajectory of the neutrons. Until then, however, some fundamental questions still need to be answered. In this talk, some classical polarization methods as well as new approaches are discussed and the current state of research on “polarized nuclear fusion” will be reported.