Posted on 11/05/2021 8:06:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The future of clean energy appears to be on the horizon. After three years of intensive research, a team led by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ramped up a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet to generate a record-breaking magnetic field with a strength of 20 teslas, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth.
The MIT scientists collaborated with Cambridge and the Bill Gates-backed Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) to create the world’s strongest fusion magnet, tested at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the test, it generated a strong magnetic field needed for the fusion process while using only 30 watts of power.
The fruitful experiment, which took place for the first time on September 5, helps improve the world’s first fusion power plant capable of producing more energy than it consumes. Furthermore, they claim that this breakthrough opens the door to the long-awaited development of practical, low-cost, carbon-free power plants that could help mitigate the effects of global climate change.
Superconductors, typically metals and alloys cooled to the point where they conduct electricity without resistance, are used to make superconducting magnets. The temperature at which that change occurs, however, is critical. Superconductors must be cooled to -273 degrees Celsius, or absolute zero, to work. It does, however, necessitate a massive infrastructure network as well as a significant amount of energy. High-temperature superconductors, however, can operate at temperatures as low as -173 degrees Celsius, with far less energy and bulk.
“[T]he new high-temperature superconductor material, made in the form of a flat, ribbon-like tape, makes it possible to achieve a higher magnetic field in a smaller device, equaling the performance that would be achieved in an apparatus 40 times larger in volume using conventional low-temperature superconducting magnets,” MIT wrote in a statement.
But how does this have anything to do with the development of nuclear fusion energy? Nuclear fusion reactors, for instance, rely heavily on magnets. A typical fusion reactor is donut-shaped, with insulation layers containing a stream of sun-hot elemental plasma. Because the plasma would melt almost any substance on Earth, it’s logical to use the most powerful magnets available to hold it in place.
With the magnet technology now successfully demonstrated, the MIT-CFS collaboration is on track to build the world’s first fusion machine device that can create and confine a plasma that produces more energy than it consumes. According to a statement from MIT, the demonstration device, called SPARC, is scheduled to be completed in 2025.
“I now am genuinely optimistic that SPARC can achieve net positive energy, based on the demonstrated performance of the magnets,” says Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research. “The next step is to scale up, to build an actual power plant. There are still many challenges ahead, not the least of which is developing a design that allows for reliable, sustained operation. And realizing that the goal here is commercialization, another major challenge will be economical. How do you design these power plants so it will be cost-effective to build and deploy them?”
Neat, so I can hasz 700 horsepower internal combustion engine with loud pipes now?
It it was indeed a miracle cure all energy source, then democrats would already be protesting it
There have been at least two earlier topics about this.
The Strange History
of Fusion and
the Science of
Wishful Thinking
by Charles Seife
They are still nowhere as close to an implementable solution as these folks: https://brilliantlightpower.com/thermal-cooling-and-electric-system-advancements/
Doesn’t “generating more power than they consume” sound a bit like a perpetual motion machine?
A physicist named Sabine Hoffstadter(sp?) has a video on how far we really are from useful fusion energy. The recent reports of getting closer to 100% return on input energy do not count all of the inputs such as the energy to keep the magnetic field going or the losses when the heat of fusion is converted to electricity. What is currently reported as around 70% return is more like 1%.
I hope there’s something here, but I won’t hold my breath.
The old saying about fusion research is, “Power from Fusion reaction is 20 years away and always will be !”.
” so-called Fusion Reactors do not exist”
They do exist. You should be more familiar with logical and linguistic quantifiers (or you should not be trying to deceive us). The Sun is a fusion reactor. A silly example I agree, but you should be more careful with your language.
There are many examples of fusion reactors built by people. Thermonuclear bombs, high energy colliders, etc. They currently limited to tiny duration of operation, but they do exist.
While it is true that research in fusion reactors has appeared to be an immense money pit, it is also, potentially, the greatest wealth producing technology by several orders of magnitude. Intelligent people understand the difficulty and expense, and the potential payoff. Unintelligent people spend their time trying to influence other unintelligent people.
Be intelligent.
Here I am , reading this wonderful article, and then they take a dump in the punch bowl by gratuitously adding this stinking scam. Anytime I see anything that mentions this Leftist propaganda I stop reading because from that point on I know they can no longer be trusted.
Well, at least you went farther in the article than other FReepers. Some stopped reading as early as the second paragraph when it was mentioned that Bill Gates was involved in funding the project.
Lots of reasons to dispute the article but that is not one of them. The energy comes from converting Hydrogen into Helium. There is a bit of matter that is converted into pure energy in the process . E=MC^2 . Every second the sun converts 4 million tons of matter into pure energy. That is how it provides enough energy for life on Earth even though our planet only gets tiny fraction of all that energy radiated.
Thankyou for the the truth...
Truth is hard to find when propaganda science rears its ugly head when research funds begin to run out each year or so...
Yes I am aware that there are schemes to take the neutron from the fusion reaction and us it to bread tritium, but there is no demonstrated scheme to break even in the tritium cycle after all known losses in the cycle are account for.
I am familiar with the mechanism of the fusion reaction, but when the article tries to say that a man-made version will violate the most basic of natural laws, that’s just plain absurd.
Post # 30
Certainly agree with you there. Would be leftists pushing all kinds of pseudoscience for the sake of attaining and wielding power for power’s sake.
So, the better expression would be ‘man-MADE controlled-fusion reactors’ don’t exist.
Asked & Answered: Hbomb as an example of Controlled Hot Fusion [CHF]
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4000502/posts?page=33#33
Cold Fusion is 25 ORDERS of MAGNITUDE better bang for the buck than Controlled Hot Fusion (CHF).
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4000502/posts?page=45#45
Coal is less than 19% of the total energy generated by the American grid. Renewables generate more as does nuclear each one is more than coal.individually now. Gas is the dominate energy source in the USA by far.
Superconducting magnets use very little energy to produce magnetic fields given they are superconductors with.virtually no electrical resistance. You must have missed this part. It took less than 30 watts to generate a field strength of 20 Tesla that’s nothing short of incredible. Good job MIT.
“During the test, it generated a strong magnetic field needed for the fusion process while using only 30 watts of power.”
Here is the actual break down of energy produced in the USA from the agency tasked with monitoring that.
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3
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