Posted on 02/09/2016 1:41:50 PM PST by Reeses
Physicists in China have sustained hydrogen plasma at 49.999 million degrees for 102 seconds, beating Germany's recent record (which was just a quarter of a second).
SUSTAINING THE HEAT
Barely a week after Germany's latest Stellerator reactor was able to sustain a cloud of hydrogen plasma for a quarter of a second at 80 million degrees Celsius, news from China indicated that Germany might now have new competition on the block.
Chinese physicists have announced that their own nuclear fusion reactor, called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), has produced and sustained hydrogen plasma at 49.999 million degrees Celsius for 102 seconds.
To put that into context, the team, which hails from China's Institute of Physical Science, states that they were able to create hydrogen and heat it to conditions mimicking what we find at the center of stars. And they were able to sustain these conditions for over a minute.
These milestones, that of Germany and China, represent a proof of concept for controlled nuclear fusion. Through these experiments, scientists could eventually come to manipulate the plasma away from the walls of the reactor and harness the energy and particles that it releases. If these records could be outclassed in the future, it would go a long way to achieving clean, limitless energy for our needs.
HOTTER THAN THE SUN
In contrast to nuclear fission, nuclear fusion is able to produce huge amounts of energy without any radioactive waste or the costs needed to manage nuclear byproducts.
(Excerpt) Read more at futurism.com ...
hahaha at your #11
Interesting....45M Deg would be the Coulomb barrier for D-T reaction.
Length of reaction seems to indicate actual fusion.
Of course they needed a fission reactor to create the Tritium but impressive if its real.
And why should we believe your contention?
Forget for a minute that this is a Chinese press release.
Let’s assume the German account is accurate.
On what scientific basis do you contend fusion power creates radioactive waste?
But what the high energy neutrons hit becomes radioactive. You wouldn't want to living near a supernova reactor when they blow, and they will.
So while they might get back to the moon before us, or unlock fusion power first, we're going to smoke China where it counts: on social media.
Fusion reactions do not generate any radioactive waste because any fissionable/fusionable material is converted through the reaction process to energy and combusted during the process, even to a mote of dust.
The problem is all in the electromagnetic containment of the process, and the physical constraints of the combustion vessel. A simple electrical power nano-second hiccup could be enough to disable such things. Lessening of the electromagnetic containment of the fusion process, depnding on how well it is built, might damage the containment vessel construction. Since there is no contained ‘pile’ as in fission reactors, unchecked fusion processes keep going as long as there is ‘matter’ to convert to energy
Now, since CERN has been built, with all the monies, time, engineering at hand, and THEY experienced an electromechanical failure in the first two weeks after firing up the machinery ....
I believe the CHICOMS are fudging their data, and have shortchanged their own construction sites weith bypassed safeties, which might result in a real China Syndrome.
No neutron activation of nearby materials?
The future belongs to those who know their race and gender modalities. Our enemies won't know what hit them.
Darn, and I thought islam would produce the next step in technological evolution
Lessening the electromagnetic containment will more likely kill the reaction. Once the plasma hits the wall, it will immediately cool below the threshold required to overcome the Coulomb barrier. Of course the wall of the containment torus will experience some significant erosion.
I understand what they did. Can someone explain why this is a big deal?
So long as it can be compressed and heated. Breach containment, and both the pressure and the heat dissipate, thus quenching the reaction.
A Fusion reactor cannot blow. On the other hand, the superconducting coils that make it work CAN blow, and unleash a huge amount of energy when they do, but it won't be Fusion. It will be stored magnetic energy.
Still a pretty good "bang", though.
And then the superconducting coils will blow, creating the effect of a mini-nuke.
Perhaps they will design around this probability? :)
If it is true, it looks like they can do D-T fusion. (Deuterium-Tritium. Both Isotopes of Hydrogen, but easier to fuse than D-D)
What this means is that they are on track for a possibly practical FUSION reactor.
It means virtually unlimited energy for whatever use they want to put to it.
Possibly there could be an electromagnetic event, whether anything like a nuke EMP is the question. When I lived in New Jersey, there were some fellow church members that had worked on the Princeton Tokamak. Plasma confinement was one of the first problems early on, and there was noticeable scoring of the torus internals due to the confinement failure. The plasma cools and game over.
Another potential problem is neutron activation of the torus materials of construction, although I associate neutron activation more with much slower thermal neutrons. Add metallurgical effects such as embrittlement, which is also noted in fission reactor pressure vessels.
Thanks. I thought was what it was. I know getting stuff really, really hot or cold are good for science.
I appreciate the help.
Good thing I can tell the difference between a boy and a girl. Usually without looking too closely.
Wouldn’t it result in a US syndrome?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.