http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40558758?SThisFB
It seems that using fusion energy will be promising looking “around the corner” technology for quite many years according to a new version of a European “road map”. The road map drawn up by scientists and engineers at EUROfusion lays out the technological hurdles to be overcome.
We will have to wait until the second half of the century for fusion reactors to start generating electricity, experts have announced.
The setback has been caused largely by delays to ITER.
103 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Quark Fusion” Produces Eight Times More Energy Than Nuclear Fusion
https://futurism.com/quark-fusion-produces-eight-times-energy-nuclear-fusion/
Researchers, building on findings from work involving the Large Hadron Collider, have found a theoretical new form of energy. This new, renewable option is more powerful than nuclear by fusing quarks into baryons.
Better Than Nuclear
To reduce the emissions fueling climate change and develop more efficient ways of generating energy, while focusing on the bottom line, governments and private institutions all over the world have been turning to renewable energy. And while solar and wind energy advance and become more widely accepted, scientists continue to explore the possibility of stabilizing nuclear fusion as a truly renewable energy source that far outperforms current options.
But what if there’s an even better source of energy that’s also potentially less volatile than nuclear fusion? This possibility is what researchers from Tel Aviv University and the University of Chicago proposed in a new study published in the journal Nature.
Tomi Engdahl says:
World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Experiment Clears Milestone
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is set to launch operations in 2025
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-largest-nuclear-fusion-experiment-clears-milestone/
A multination project to build a fusion reactor cleared a milestone yesterday and is now 6 ½ years away from “First Plasma,” officials announced.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Could Be Turning On Its ‘Artificial Sun’ Fusion Reactor Soon
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/12/21/2155244/china-could-be-turning-on-its-artificial-sun-fusion-reactor-soon
“China is about to start operation on its ‘artificial sun’ — a nuclear fusion device that produces energy by replicating the reactions that take place at the center of the sun,” writes Newsweek.
CHINA IS ABOUT TO FIRE UP ITS ‘ARTIFICIAL SUN’ IN QUEST FOR FUSION ENERGY
https://www.newsweek.com/china-about-fire-its-artificial-sun-quest-fusion-energy-1477705
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/5-big-ideas-for-making-fusion-power-a-reality
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nuclear Fusion At 100: The Hidden Race For Energy Supremacy
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/23/nuclear-fusion-at-100-the-hidden-race-for-energy-supremacy/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/29/alternative-uses-for-nuclear-waste/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2020-05-discovery-edge-fusion-plasma-power.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Enabling the exclusive use of clean energy will be a miracle for our planet.”
Scientists Start Construction of World’s Largest Fusion Reactor
https://futurism.com/scientists-start-construction-worlds-largest-fusion-reactor
Today, engineers started construction of the world’s largest nuclear fusion project in southern France, The Guardian reports, with operations planned to begin in late 2025.
The project, called ITER, is an international collaborative effort between 35 countries with enormous ambitions: prove the feasibility of fusion energy with a gigantic magnetic device called a “tokamak,” as per the project’s official website.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITER Celebrates Milestone, Still at Least a Decade Away From Fusing Atoms
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/iter-fusion-reactor
On July 28, 2020, the product of these Cold Warriors’ mutual infatuation with fusion, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, France inaugurated the start of the machine assembly phase of this industrial-scale tokamak nuclear fusion reactor.
An experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a virtually inexhaustible, waste-free and non-polluting source of energy, ITER has already been 30-plus years in planning, with tens of billions invested. And if there are new fusion reactors designed based on research conducted here, they won’t be powering anything until the latter half of this century.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers find unexpected electrical current that could stabilize fusion reactions
https://phys.org/news/2020-09-unexpected-electrical-current-stabilize-fusion.html
Electric current is everywhere, from powering homes to controlling the plasma that fuels fusion reactions to possibly giving rise to vast cosmic magnetic fields. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found that electrical currents can form in ways not known before. The novel findings could give researchers greater ability to bring the fusion energy that drives the sun and stars to Earth.
The unexpected currents arise in the plasma within doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks. The currents develop when a particular type of electromagnetic wave, such as those that radios and microwave ovens emit, forms spontaneously. These waves push some of the already-moving electrons, “which ride the wave like surfers on a surfboard,” said Ochs.
The results deepen understanding of a basic physical phenomenon and were also unexpected. They appear to contradict the conventional notion that current drives require electron collisions, Ochs said.
“The question of whether waves can drive any current in plasma is actually very deep and goes to the fundamental interactions of waves in plasma,” said Nathaniel Fisch, a coauthor of the paper, professor and associate chair of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, and director of the Program in Plasma Physics. “What Ochs derived in masterful, didactic fashion, with mathematical rigor, was not only how these effects are sometimes balanced, but also how these effects sometimes conspire to allow the formation of net electrical currents.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/28/nasa-claims-cold-fusion-without-naming-it/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/tutkijat-uskovat-keksineensa-miten-fuusiovoimasta-tulee-vihdoin-totta-jos-pystymme-ylittamaan-rakentamisen-haasteet-tama-laite-tulee-toimimaan-ennustamallamme-tavalla/
Tomi Engdahl says:
We’ve Long Waited for Fusion. This Reactor May Finally Deliver It—Fast.
Scientists say their compact reactor could be up and running in just 10 years. That would be unprecedented.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a34224299/nuclear-fusion-compact-reactor-sparc-timeline/
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIT Researchers Say Their Fusion Reactor Is “Very Likely to Work”
Is fusion energy finally no longer “decades away?”
https://futurism.com/mit-researchers-fusion-reactor-very-likely-work
Tomi Engdahl says:
New nuclear fusion reactor design may be a breakthrough
Using permanent magnets may help to make nuclear fusion reactors simpler and more affordable.
https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/nuclear-fusion-reactor
Tomi Engdahl says:
Middle Schooler Builds Tiny, Working Fusion Reactor
https://futurism.com/the-byte/middle-schooler-build-tiny-working-fusion-reactor
While nations are spending billions to build football field-sized nuclear fusion reactors — the elusive process of harnessing energy from fusing atoms, rather than breaking them apart — a 12 year old kid from Memphis, Tennessee, just became the youngest person to have ever achieved nuclear fusion, according to Guinness World Records.
With just hours left before he turned 13, Jackson Oswalt managed to fuse two deuterium atoms together in a fusion reactor he built — in his family’s house.
According to Jackson, he was the only person who worked on the reactor during both the design and production stages.
“The temperature in my fusor varies, but it’s approximately 100 million degrees [Kelvin],” Jackson said in the Guinness World Records video accompanying the announcement.
Building a DIY fusion reactor — albeit not one that can generate more power than you put into it, a holy grail among energy researchers — is a challenging but achievable task with a thriving online community around it.
“There were a few moments during the project that I had some reservations,” Jackson’s mother admitted. “I would definitely be googling things before he turned on various stages.”
She also added that “he did a great job of explaining it to us.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nuclear Fusion Machine Turns on for the First Time
This tokamak is designed to overcome a key inhibitor of fusion energy.
https://www.freethink.com/articles/nuclear-fusion-machine
When two atoms fuse into one, they release an enormous amount of energy. This process, nuclear fusion, is what powers the sun, and it only happens under tremendous heat and pressure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How botnets are evolving: from IoT botnets to Hivenets
https://cybernews.com/security/how-botnets-are-evolving-from-iot-botnets-to-hivenets/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.sciencealert.com/huge-fusion-experiment-achieves-first-plasma-in-landmark-step-towards-clean-energy
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://inews.co.uk/news/science/international-thermonuclear-experimental-reactor-project-clean-energy-752449
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Just Switched on Its ‘Artificial Sun’ Nuclear Fusion Reactor
AFP
7 DECEMBER 2020
China successfully powered up its “artificial Sun” nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, state media reported Friday, marking a great advance in the country’s nuclear power research capabilities.
https://www.sciencealert.com/china-just-powered-up-its-artificial-sun-nuclear-fusion-reactor
Tomi Engdahl says:
Korea’s Artificial Sun Breaks World Record Running For An Incredible 20 Seconds
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/koreas-artificial-sun-breaks-world-record-running-for-an-incredible-20-seconds/
Last month, the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, a nuclear fusion reactor known as an “artificial sun”, broke the world record by maintaining a plasma for an incredible 20 seconds at an ion temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), which is one of the core conditions for nuclear fusion from such a device.
KSTAR’s progress is staggering. It first reached 100 million degrees Celsius in 2018 but only for 1.5 seconds. In 2019, this was extended to 8 seconds. This has now more than doubled. No other device that has been capable of producing plasma this hot (or hotter) has been able to maintain it for more than 10 seconds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://newatlas.com/energy/china-claims-fusion-record-artificial-sun-nuclear-reactor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Is the First Fusion Power Plant to Generate Net Electricity
Here’s the secret to the self-sustaining tokamak concept.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a35994805/first-fusion-power-plant-to-generate-net-electricity/
Tomi Engdahl says:
ITER Global Fusion Energy Project: After a Decade of Design and Fabrication, World’s Most Powerful Magnet Ready
https://scitechdaily.com/iter-global-fusion-energy-project-after-a-decade-of-design-and-fabrication-worlds-most-powerful-magnet-ready/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fuel tests to begin for world’s largest fusion reactor
The experiments could help make stable nuclear fusion a reality.
https://www.freethink.com/science/biggest-fusion-reactor?utm_source=agorapulse&utm_campaign=freethinkdiyscience
The Tokamak
The most promising device scientists have come up with for harnessing fusion energy is a hollow, donut-shaped machine called a tokamak.
Inside a tokamak, gaseous hydrogen fuel turns into a plasma under the influence of extreme heat and pressure.
Magnets on the outside of the hollow area control the movement of this plasma, and as atoms within it undergo fusion, the interior walls absorb their energy.
We know this type of nuclear fusion reactor works, but the problem is the magnets require a crazy amount of energy. We still haven’t been able to get one to produce more energy than we put into it — the best power output to power input ratio anyone has achieved with a tokamak is 0.67:1.
Tomi Engdahl says:
General Fusion Takes Aim at Practical Fusion Power The company plans to demonstrate its compact nuclear fusion technology in the UK by 2025
https://spectrum.ieee.org/general-fusion-takes-aim-at-practical-fusion-power
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/major-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-achieved-in-the-us/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nuclear fusion test re-creates power of the sun in step toward energy revolution
A laser blast in California ignites a fleeting, self-sustaining chain reaction.
https://www.cnet.com/news/nuclear-fusion-test-re-creates-power-of-the-sun-in-step-toward-energy-revolution/
Tomi Engdahl says:
With explosive new result, laser-powered fusion effort nears ‘ignition’
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/explosive-new-result-laser-powered-fusion-effort-nears-ignition
More than a decade ago, the world’s most energetic laser started to unleash its blasts on tiny capsules of hydrogen isotopes, with managers promising it would soon demonstrate a route to limitless fusion energy. Now, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) has taken a major leap toward that goal. Last week, a single laser shot sparked a fusion explosion from a peppercorn-size fuel capsule that produced eight times more energy than the facility had ever achieved: 1.35 megajoules (MJ)—roughly the kinetic energy of a car traveling at 160 kilometers per hour. That was also 70% of the energy of the laser pulse that triggered it, making it tantalizingly close to “ignition”: a fusion shot producing an excess of energy.
“After many years at 3% of ignition, this is superexciting,” says Mark Herrmann, head of the fusion program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which operates NIF.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/08/30/fusion-ignition-what-does-the-nifs-1-3-mj-yield-mean-for-fusion-research/
Tomi Engdahl says:
1.21 GIGAWATTS? 10 QUADRILLION WATTS JUST WENT KABOOM IN THE MOST EPIC NUCLEAR FUSION EXPERIMENT EVER
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/10-quadrillion-watts-nuclear-fusion-experiment
Kazdan Pak and his research team irradiate a metal tube or hohlraum, whose walls balance out the energy flowing through it, with a laser that easily covered the length of three football fields. Its target was a capsule the size of a BB—but wait. There was some thermonuclear fuel made of deuterium and tritium in that target. The laser was able to drive enough radiation to compress and heat the target, which furiously set off one fusion reaction after another. The 10 quadrillion watts of energy that resulted almost equaled how much laser energy was put into the experiment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Nuclear Fusion The Answer To Clean Energy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPS-epGPJmg
Nuclear power has a controversial history, but many energy experts say it has a major role to play in our energy future. Some in the industry are working to make standard fission power safer and cheaper. Others are pursuing the holy grail of energy – nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun and the stars. If we figure out how to harness that power here on earth, it would be a huge game-changer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10-Sep-2021
World’s biggest magnet starts to take shape at nuclear fusion reactor in France
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-10/World-s-biggest-magnet-starts-to-take-shape-in-France-13qrvJ1gPGo/index.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fusion breakthrough dawns a new era for US energy and industry
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/571722-fusion-breakthrough-dawns-a-new-era-for-us-energy-and-industry
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2021/09/27/commonwealth-fusions-20-tesla-magnet-a-bright-sparc-towards-fusions-future/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese Scientists ‘Strike Gold’ In a Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough
With an unusual strategy involving gold, scientists made a potentially game-changing discovery in the early race for nuclear fusion
https://interestingengineering.com/chinese-scientists-strike-gold-in-a-nuclear-fusion-breakthrough
Tomi Engdahl says:
New nuclear fusion reactor design may be a breakthrough
Using permanent magnets may help to make nuclear fusion reactors simpler and more affordable.
https://bigthink.com/hard-science/nuclear-fusion-reactor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How close is nuclear fusion power?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4W1g-6JiY
How close is nuclear fusion to break-even? If you trust the headlines we’re getting close and the international project ITER is going to be the first to produce energy from fusion power. But not so fast. Scientists have, accidentally or deliberately, come to use a very misleading quantity to measure their progress. Unfortunately we’re much farther away from generating fusion power than the headlines suggest.
Phillip Ball’s article in the Guardian is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/27/nuclear-fusion-research-power-generation-iter-jet-step-carbon-neutral-2050-boris-johnson
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nuclear fusion: why the race to harness the power of the sun just sped up
Advances in technology and funding have sparked optimism in an area that has promised much but delivered little in six decades
https://www.ft.com/content/33942ae7-75ff-4911-ab99-adc32545fe5c
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.sciencealert.com/korea-s-cutting-edge-fusion-reactor-breaks-its-previous-record-for-swirling-plasma
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finally, a Fusion Reaction Has Generated More Energy Than Absorbed by The Fuel
https://www.sciencealert.com/for-the-first-time-a-fusion-reaction-has-generated-more-energy-than-absorbed-by-the-fuel
MICHELLE STARR
3 DECEMBER 2021
A major milestone has been breached in the quest for fusion energy.
For the first time, a fusion reaction has achieved a record 1.3 megajoule energy output – and for the first time, exceeding energy absorbed by the fuel used to trigger it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MAGNETIC-CONFINEMENT FUSION WITHOUT THE MAGNETS
Zap Energy’s new Z-pinch fusion reactor promises a simpler approach to an elusive goal
https://spectrum.ieee.org/zap-energy-fusion-reactor?share_id=6828910
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-smashed-fusion-record
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s ‘Artificial Sun’ Just Broke a Major World Record For Plasma Fusion
https://www.sciencealert.com/china-s-artificial-sun-just-broke-a-major-world-record-for-plasma-fusion
Tomi Engdahl says:
Helping To Make Nuclear Fusion a Reality at MIT
https://scitechdaily.com/helping-to-make-nuclear-fusion-a-reality-at-mit/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tiede.fi/artikkeli/uutiset/lasereilla-synnytetty-fuusio-syttyi-lupaavasti
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/01/16/thirty-seconds-at-100-megakelvins/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nuclear Fusion Milestone As Energy Emitted Exceeds Energy Put In For First Time
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/nuclear-fusion-milestone-as-energy-emitted-exceeds-energy-put-in-for-first-time/
Back in August, researchers from the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory believed they might have finally crossed the threshold of “ignition” of inertial confinement fusion. Now they have confirmed it. They managed to get more energy out of the fusion reactor than was originally needed to make the material fuse.
The event released 1.3 Megajoules of fusion energy – an eight-fold improvement on the test conducted this past spring, and 25 times better than the record-breaking experiments in 2018. The findings are published in the journal Nature.
“In these experiments we achieved, for the first time in any fusion research facility, a burning plasma state where more fusion energy is emitted from the fuel than was required to initiate the fusion reactions, or the amount of work done on the fuel,” co-lead author Annie Kritcher said in a statement.
https://www.llnl.gov/news/nature-paper-describes-target-and-laser-designs-achieved-burning-plasma-lawrence-livermore
Tomi Engdahl says:
Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60312633