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The Dream of Nuclear Fusion Is Now Closer to Reality. Here's Why
https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | April 5, 2022 | DAVID DONOVAN & LIVIA CASALI

Posted on 04/05/2022 10:44:29 AM PDT by Red Badger

Scientists at a laboratory in England have shattered the record for the amount of energy produced during a controlled, sustained fusion reaction.

The production of 59 megajoules of energy over five seconds at the Joint European Torus – or JET – experiment in England has been called "a breakthrough" by some news outlets and caused quite a lot of excitement among physicists.

But a common line regarding fusion electricity production is that it is "always 20 years away."

We are a nuclear physicist and a nuclear engineer who study how to develop controlled nuclear fusion for the purpose of generating electricity.

The JET result demonstrates remarkable advancements in the understanding of the physics of fusion. But just as importantly, it shows that the new materials used to construct the inner walls of the fusion reactor worked as intended.

The fact that the new wall construction performed as well as it did is what separates these results from previous milestones and elevates magnetic fusion from a dream toward a reality.

Fusing particles together Nuclear fusion is the merging of two atomic nuclei into one compound nucleus. This nucleus then breaks apart and releases energy in the form of new atoms and particles that speed away from the reaction. A fusion power plant would capture the escaping particles and use their energy to generate electricity.

There are a few different ways to safely control fusion on Earth. Our research focuses on the approach taken by JET – using powerful magnetic fields to confine atoms until they are heated to a high enough temperature for them to fuse.

The fuel for current and future reactors are two different isotopes of hydrogen – meaning they have the one proton, but different numbers of neutrons – called deuterium and tritium. Normal hydrogen has one proton and no neutrons in its nucleus. Deuterium has one proton and one neutron while tritium has one proton and two neutrons.

For a fusion reaction to be successful, the fuel atoms must first become so hot that the electrons break free from the nuclei. This creates plasma – a collection of positive ions and electrons.

You then need to keep heating that plasma until it reaches a temperature over 200 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million Celsius). This plasma must then be kept in a confined space at high densities for a long enough period of time for the fuel atoms to collide into each other and fuse together.

To control fusion on Earth, researchers developed donut-shaped devices – called tokamaks – which use magnetic fields to contain the plasma. Magnetic field lines wrapping around the inside of the donut act like train tracks that the ions and electrons follow.

By injecting energy into the plasma and heating it up, it is possible to accelerate the fuel particles to such high speeds that when they collide, instead of bouncing off each other, the fuel nuclei fuse together. When this happens, they release energy, primarily in the form of fast-moving neutrons.

During the fusion process, fuel particles gradually drift away from the hot, dense core and eventually collide with the inner wall of the fusion vessel.

To prevent the walls from degrading due to these collisions – which in turn also contaminates the fusion fuel – reactors are built so that they channel the wayward particles toward a heavily armored chamber called the divertor. This pumps out the diverted particles and removes any excess heat to protect the tokamak.

The walls are important A major limitation of past reactors has been the fact that divertors can't survive the constant particle bombardment for more than a few seconds. To make fusion power work commercially, engineers need to build a tokamak vessel that will survive for years of use under the conditions necessary for fusion.

The divertor wall is the first consideration. Though the fuel particles are much cooler when they reach the divertor, they still have enough energy to knock atoms loose from the wall material of the divertor when they collide with it.

Previously, JET's divertor had a wall made of graphite, but graphite absorbs and traps too much of the fuel for practical use.

Around 2011, engineers at JET upgraded the divertor and inner vessel walls to tungsten. Tungsten was chosen in part because it has the highest melting point of any metal – an extremely important trait when the divertor is likely to experience heat loads nearly 10 times higher than the nose cone of a space shuttle reentering the Earth's atmosphere.

The inner vessel wall of the tokamak was upgraded from graphite to beryllium. Beryllium has excellent thermal and mechanical properties for a fusion reactor – it absorbs less fuel than graphite but can still withstand the high temperatures.

The energy JET produced was what made the headlines, but we'd argue it is in fact the use of the new wall materials which make the experiment truly impressive because future devices will need these more robust walls to operate at high power for even longer periods of time.

JET is a successful proof of concept for how to build the next generation of fusion reactors.

The next fusion reactors The JET tokamak is the largest and most advanced magnetic fusion reactor currently operating. But the next generation of reactors is already in the works, most notably the ITER experiment, set to begin operations in 2027.

ITER – which is Latin for "the way" – is under construction in France and funded and directed by an international organization that includes the US.

ITER is going to put to use many of the material advances JET showed to be viable. But there are also some key differences. First, ITER is massive. The fusion chamber is 37 feet (11.4 meters) tall and 63 feet (19.4 meters) around – more than eight times larger than JET.

In addition, ITER will utilize superconducting magnets capable of producing stronger magnetic fields for longer periods of time compared to JET's magnets. With these upgrades, ITER is expected to smash JET's fusion records – both for energy output and how long the reaction will run.

ITER is also expected to do something central to the idea of a fusion powerplant: produce more energy than it takes to heat the fuel. Models predict that ITER will produce around 500 megawatts of power continuously for 400 seconds while only consuming 50 MW of energy to heat the fuel.

This means the reactor produces 10 times more energy than it consumes – a huge improvement over JET, which required roughly three times more energy to heat the fuel than it produced for its recent 59 megajoule record.

JET's recent record has shown that years of research in plasma physics and materials science have paid off and brought scientists to the doorstep of harnessing fusion for power generation. ITER will provide an enormous leap forward toward the goal of industrial scale fusion power plants.

David Donovan, Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering, University of Tennessee and Livia Casali, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, University of Tennessee.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine; History; Science
KEYWORDS: britain; daviddonovan; england; jointeuropeantorus; liviacasali; tennessee; uoftennessee
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1 posted on 04/05/2022 10:44:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Wonder Warthog; Kevmo; SunkenCiv; SuperLuminal

Fusion Ping!......................


2 posted on 04/05/2022 10:45:14 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

Like irreversible global warming, Nuclear fusion is always only 20 years away...


3 posted on 04/05/2022 10:52:45 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: Red Badger

Good news, fusion power only ten years away!


4 posted on 04/05/2022 10:52:51 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Yo-Yo

They will cancel each other out..................


5 posted on 04/05/2022 10:53:28 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Yo-Yo
Oops, forgot the quote:

But a common line regarding fusion electricity production is that it is "always 20 years away."

6 posted on 04/05/2022 10:53:46 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: Red Badger

Nothing would end the “climate” lunacy and its attendant problems (e.g., Russia itching for WW III) than successful fusion. But it’s always 20 years away.

The solution is simple, however. Make the vessel walls out of unobtanium.


7 posted on 04/05/2022 10:53:54 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“I identify as” is another way of saying “I pretend to be”)
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To: Red Badger
The petrochemical companies will impede any progress on this type of research/development.

But then, I'm just an uber-cynic. What will fascinate me is if/when this becomes reality...what will be the Watermelons excuse for protesting it?

8 posted on 04/05/2022 10:53:54 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (A morning without coffee is like...just kidding. I have no idea.)
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To: tet68

And always will be!


9 posted on 04/05/2022 10:54:34 AM PDT by Reily
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To: Red Badger
"Fusing particles together Nuclear fusion is the merging of two atomic nuclei into one compound nucleus. This nucleus then breaks apart and releases energy in the form of new atoms and particles that speed away from the reaction. A fusion power plant would capture the escaping particles and use their energy to generate electricity."

This has got to be the stupidest explanation of fusion that I've ever seen

10 posted on 04/05/2022 10:54:59 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself)
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To: Red Badger

Energy breakeven, meh. They need to demonstrate at least 10x output versus input before it’s even worthwhile to initiate a pilot plant demo. I figure they are still 20+ years away from operational fusion power plants. I remember sitting in my senior year nuclear engineering class in 1974. The professor stated that we shouldn’t expect to be working on fusion power plants until 2000 at the earliest and that was assuming that breakeven was achieved that year. I wouldn’t bet on seeing fusion power plants until the 2040’s at the earliest.


11 posted on 04/05/2022 10:55:38 AM PDT by tony549 (Stuck in SoCal)
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To: tony549

That is 22.2 horsepower per metric hour. This test lasted 5 seconds. Is this an advancement? Yes it is. We are still a long way from fusion power, nuclear weapons excepted.


12 posted on 04/05/2022 11:00:00 AM PDT by cpdiii (CANE CUTTER-DECKHAND-ROUGHNECK-OILFIELD CONSULTANT-GEOLOGIST-PILOT-PHARMACIST )
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To: Red Badger
Cold Fusion is 25 ORDERS of MAGNITUDE better bang for the buck than Controlled Hot Fusion (CHF).
13 posted on 04/05/2022 11:04:03 AM PDT by Kevmo (Give back Ukes their Nukes https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4044080/posts)
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To: Red Badger

Again, fusion has been 20 years in the future for at least the last 50 years.


14 posted on 04/05/2022 11:05:39 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

If the technology looked promising why wouldn’t they invest in it instead of impeding it? If this works that’s great, but we still use petrochemicals for all types of non-energy uses.


15 posted on 04/05/2022 11:06:43 AM PDT by packagingguy
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To: Mr. K

It’s the Kamala Harris version.............


16 posted on 04/05/2022 11:13:27 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Yo-Yo

In the 1960’s, it always was 30 years away. We’re getting closer...


17 posted on 04/05/2022 11:18:18 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: Mr. K
That is a poor description of Fusion. And I find it disturbing that this description was written by these guys:

We are a nuclear physicist and a nuclear engineer who study how to develop controlled nuclear fusion for the purpose of generating electricity.

18 posted on 04/05/2022 11:18:31 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (It's hard to "Believe all women" when judges say "I don't know what a woman is".)
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To: Red Badger

“The production of 59 megajoules of energy over five seconds at the Joint European Torus – or JET”

Sounds great until you get to this:

“...JET, which required roughly three times more energy to heat the fuel than it produced for its recent 59 megajoule record”

I can take 3 joules of energy and give you 1 joule back without building a fancy fusion reactor. No problemo. Just give me some grant money :)


19 posted on 04/05/2022 11:21:34 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Red Badger

As usual, they are vaping over the wrong Q...
Utter BS!


20 posted on 04/05/2022 11:22:48 AM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another Sam Adams now that we desperately need him?)
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