Free Republic

Scientists in South Korea have announced a new world record for the length of time they sustained temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius — seven times hotter than the sun’s core — during a nuclear fusion experiment, in what they say is an important step forward for this futuristic energy technology.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei in the east Chinese province of Anhui reports a new temperature record. At the end of last year, a plasma temperature of 70 million ° C could be maintained in the experimental nuclear fusion reactor for 1056 seconds, i.e. a good 17 minutes, reports the Institute for Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). That is the longest time in which such a temperature could be kept constant. This creates a solid basis for further research into energy generation from nuclear fusion, writes the ASIPP. Its general director Prof. Yuntao...

The energy source has been long on promise and short on reality. Now private companies think they can succeed where the government has failed. For more than half a century governments around the world have been trying to solve the challenge of nuclear fusion. In theory it could provide a cheap, clean, and almost boundless source of energy. Consider this: One tablespoon of liquid hydrogen fuel—a mix of deuterium and tritium—would produce the same energy as 28 tons of coal. But smashing two hydrogen atoms together at 100 million degrees centigrade to create a fusion reaction has proved to be...

Conrad Farnsworth built a nuclear reactor in his dad’s garage. But when it came to making the International Science and Engineering Fair, there was a bit of a meltdown. He was disqualified from attending because he entered into one too many science fairs in the wrong order, news reports say. … Farnsworth is one of only 15 high-school students to ever achieve nuclear fusion, and the first person to do so in the state of Wyoming. …

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Magnetically imploded tubes called liners, intended to help produce controlled nuclear fusion at scientific “break-even” energies or better within the next few years, have functioned successfully in preliminary tests, according to a Sandia research paper accepted for publication by Physical Review Letters (PRL). Sandia researcher Ryan McBride pays close attention to the tiny central beryllium liner to be imploded by the powerful magnetic field generated by Sandia’s Z machine. The larger cylinders forming a circle on the exterior of the base plate measure Z’s load current by picking up the generated magnetic field. (Photo by Randy Montoya)...

An ongoing tussle between the EU institutions over the future funding of a controversial nuclear fusion project—which will come under the spotlight during the Danish EU presidency—threatens to hack into the European Commission’s €85-billion ($111-billion) Horizon 2020 budget proposal. The funding dispute centers around the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project based at the Cadarache research facility in southern France. Construction is to begin this year. The ITER reactor aims to replicate the kind of fusion that occurs in the sun, creating cheap and abundant energy that does not rely on fossil fuels. … The Commission fears that including ITER within...

Dr. Robert Bussard’s EMC2 Corp. with the U.S. Navy using recovery act funding working on inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) nuclear fusion based on the theory and prior work of Dr. Bussard has issued a very brief report. The plan is to determine if the experimental plasma scaling agrees with the theoretical models. The U.S. Navy funding is directed to conducting tests on “Wiffle-Ball” plasma scaling law on plasma heating and confinement by EMC2. The firm has burned $3,216,826 of an authorized $7,855,504 and has surpassed 50% completion of the work. As of September 30, 2011, the WB-8 device has generated...

Researchers Report Record High Temperatures in Compact Fusion Device Step taken towards environmentally safe, cheap and unlimited energy May 28, 2002. A team of researchers has announced the achievement for the first time of temperatures above one billion degrees in a dense plasma. The breakthrough, achieved with a compact and inexpensive device called the plasma focus, is a step toward controlled fusion energy using advanced fuels that release little or no radioactivity. "We have achieved a key condition needed to burn hydrogen-boron fuel," said Eric J. Lerner of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, one of the researchers. "This fuel produces virtually no...