Science Alert August 16, 2022 For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin “burn propagation” into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While “scientific […]
Tag Archives: Nuclear energy
Calling all ‘fusioneers’! New US fusion energy website launches
Phys.org November 8, 2021 The U.S. fusion community has just completed a two-year strategic planning process to focus on a bold new direction: the construction of a prototype fusion power plant by 2035. Following a recommendation from the consensus reports created by researchers a diverse committee of stakeholders from the U.S. fusion energy community has collaborated to build usfusionenergy.org. The website will feature the latest fusion news and informative articles, events, and resources that will help anyone, anywhere, understand the promise of fusion energy. The National Ignition Facility in California announced a significant step forward for laser-driven fusion this August. […]
Physicists Have Successfully Advanced a Key Device For Producing Fusion Power
Science Alert September 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (Germany, Belgium, Spain, USA – Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, MIT, University of Wisconsin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Auburn University, University of Maryland, Los alamos National Laboratory, Hungary, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, France, Russia, Poland, Japan, Austria, Ukraine, Finland, UK) sought to shape the magnets in W7-X to try and reduce the effects of neoclassical transport. Measurements, taken using an instrument called an X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer (XICS), have shown very high temperatures inside the reactor. These are supported by charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) measurements. With both data […]
A major challenge to harvesting fusion energy on Earth
Phys.org August 5, 2021 A key challenge to producing the fusion energy is preventing the runaway electrons that can bore holes in tokamaks. To see the electrons so that they can find ways to stop them before their population can grow into an avalanche an international team of researchers (USA – Princeton University, University of Wisconsin, Edgewood College, Japan, Switzerland) used a multi-energy pinhole camera which has the unique ability to record not only the properties of the plasma in time and space but its energy distribution as well. Use of the novel camera moves technology forward. Comparing their diagnosis […]
UTokyo researchers generate the strongest-ever controllable magnetic field
University of Tokyo September 18, 2018 To generate the magnetic field researchers in Japan built a sophisticated device capable of electromagnetic flux-compression (EMFC), a method of magnetic field generation well-suited for indoor operations. Using the device, they were able to produce a magnetic field of 1,200 teslas, sustain it for 100 microseconds, thousands of times longer than previous attempts, and control the magnetic field so it didn’t destroy their equipment like some past attempts to create powerful fields. The research could lead to powerful investigative tools for material scientists and may have applications in fusion power generation… read more. Open […]
Giant lasers pass new milestone towards fusion energy
Physics World June 18, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, industry, University of Rochester, MIT, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Germany) has shown that the fusion energy generated by the laser implosion of a deuterium-tritium fuel capsule is twice that of the kinetic energy of the implosion. They changed the shape of the laser pulses to create much more stable implosions. In 2014, these “high-foot” pulses each yielded up to 17 kJ of fusion energy (and later 26 kJ) – exceeding the roughly 10 kJ created in earlier experiments. They say they will be close […]
Prototype nuclear battery packs 10 times more power
Phys.org June 01, 2018 Researchers in Russia developed a nuclear battery prototype consisting of 200 diamond converters interlaid with nickel-63 and stable nickel foil layers. The amount of power generated by the converter depends on the thickness of the nickel foil and the converter itself, because both affect how many beta particles are absorbed. For maximum power density they found that the nickel-63 source should be 2 micrometers thick, and the optimal thickness of the converter based on Schottky barrier diamond diodes is around 10 micrometers… read more. The findings have prospects for medical and space industry applications. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
MIT and newly formed company launch novel approach to fusion power
MIT News March 9, 2018 Commonwealth Fusion Systems will support MIT to develop the world’s most powerful large-bore superconducting electromagnets. Once the magnets are developed MIT and CFS will design and build a compact and powerful fusion experiment, called SPARC, using those magnets. The device will demonstrate key technical milestones needed to ultimately achieve a full-scale prototype of a fusion power plant that could set the world on a path to low-carbon energy. The compact device is expected to be capable of generating 100 million watts, or 100 megawatts (MW), of fusion power. Goal is for research to produce a […]