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?”
How are other high temp fusion experiments going?
The Japanese, Chinese and Euros all have one, and maybe Russia is still experimenting?
What kind of energy did they use to “ramp up” the magnet? Electricity from a coal burning power plant?
First, so-called Fusion Reactors do not exist. Second the magnets have to continue operating in the high flux of 14 MeV neutrons generated by the fusion reactions. Third, it is merely hypothesized that stronger magnets will make this possible, but every time someone scales up a magnetically confined fusion system to increased size, fields and confinement temperatures he discovers new plasma instabilities that disrupt the whole thing.
There are more issues.
Great.... Not. That which powers industry and America can kill you very easily. Do the math and keep your distance.
Funny that they want to name it SPARC. Many, many moons ago I wrote some code in SPARC Assembler. LOL
All I know is, if its truly an improvement, Government won’t need to mandate it.
Practical, commercial Fusion is only 20 years away.
and it has been for the past 70 years...
Bill Gates... killed it right there for me
“Because the plasma would melt almost any substance on Earth ...”
Vaporize, or even more accurately turn into more plasma would be more accurate.
They are lying as there are no carbon free anything.
There is a really good youtube video which tells the real story about how far we are from viable fusion power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4W1g-6JiY
The frequently quoted number is “Break Even”.
The problem is the number excludes the operating power demands for the plant itself.
They do this so governments keep throwing $$$ at it as it appears we are very close.
We are NOT close.
Probably 2x magnitude from true “Break Even”
First, so-called Fusion Reactors do not exist.
Not yet, but I have very little doubt hat eventually we will get there just as we advanced from a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) to a flat panel TV screen. Or from an early TV signal recorder which could only record at best perhaps half an hour with a tape width of maybe two inches and a price tag over $ 50K.
I am old enough to remember the early portable radios, which could give you a hernia just by carrying them around, with a hefty B + battery and miniature metal tubes.
When I was a youngster and if someone may have told us that we could take pictures electronically with a camera which could store hundreds of images and if so desired could send them to anywhere around the world via a device we call now a computer, I would have considered this person out of his mind and now we take it for granted.
Had some one at the time told us that we will have a light beam (LASER) which could cut steel and at the same time could kill you, once again this person would have been considered gone off the deep end. In other words almost anything conceivable by the human mind will eventually turn in to reality. You may want to note the stipulation “ALMOST” As there always will be certain limitation’s as well as boundaries which the laws of physics will not allow us to cross.
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. …Stopped reading right there. Looks like someone never read the first law of thermodynamics, you know, “Energy is neither created nor destroyed”, etc.
By "2X magnitude" do you mean "halfway there" or "two orders of magnitude away, which is "1% of the way there?"
First, so-called Fusion Reactors do not exist.
Not yet, but I have very little doubt hat eventually we will get there just as we advanced from a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) to a flat panel TV screen. Or from an early TV signal recorder which could only record at best perhaps half an hour with a tape width of maybe two inches and a price tag over $ 50K.
I am old enough to remember the early portable radios, which could give you a hernia just by carrying them around, with a hefty B + battery and miniature metal tubes.
When I was a youngster and if someone may have told us that we could take pictures electronically with a camera which could store hundreds of images and if so desired could send them to anywhere around the world via a device we call now a computer, I would have considered this person out of his mind and now we take it for granted.
Had some one at the time told us that we will have a light beam (LASER) which could cut steel and at the same time could kill you, once again this person would have been considered gone off the deep end. In other words almost anything conceivable by the human mind will eventually turn in to reality. You may want to note the stipulation “ALMOST” As there always will be certain limitation’s as well as boundaries which the laws of physics will not allow us to cross.
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.