In France, scientists have set a new record for maintaining plasma combustion inside a fusion reactor, surpassing China’s previous achievement by 25%. At the same time, the French WEST fusion reactor broke China’s record set just a few weeks ago. Thus, another small but important step has been taken towards an almost unlimited clean energy source.
The WEST tokamak (toroidal chamber with magnetic coils), owned by the French Atomic and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA), maintained a stable plasma burning flow for a record 1337 seconds (over 22 minutes). This is 25% more than the previous Chinese record of 1066 seconds set on January 20.
«WEST has achieved a new key technological milestone by holding hydrogen plasma for more than twenty minutes with the introduction of 2 MW of thermal power», said Anne-Isabelle Etienneuvre, Director of Basic Research at CEA. (2 MW is enough to power more than 1,000 homes). «Experiments will continue with even higher power».
It is worth noting that last year, the record for WEST was the duration of fusion of 6 minutes.
Fusion – the energy of the stars
Scientists have been trying to harness the energy of fusion, the process that powers stars, for more than 70 years. The fusion of hydrogen atoms at extreme temperatures and pressures converts matter into light and heat, generating enormous amounts of energy without emitting greenhouse gases or long-term radioactive waste.
But reproducing the conditions that exist in the cores of stars is an extremely difficult task. The most common and promising type of fusion reactor is the tokamak. It works by heating the plasma (the fourth state of matter consisting of positive ions and free electrons) to ultra-high temperatures and holding it in a torus-shaped chamber using powerful magnetic fields.
To achieve the new record, the WEST reactor did just that: it held the plasma, made of heavy hydrogen isotopes, at a temperature of more than 50 million degrees Celsius for more than 22 minutes.
It is relatively easy to heat plasma to such temperatures. It is much more difficult to keep it so that it does not destroy the walls of the reactor without interrupting the fusion process. For this purpose, either powerful lasers or magnetic fields are used.
A step towards the creation of the world’s largest fusion reactor
This achievement paves the way for the launch of ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which will be the largest in the world. China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States are working together on the project.
ITER consists of 19 huge magnetic coils connected in a complex toroidal system. The reactor was originally planned to begin its first full-scale tests in 2020, but due to changes in the launch schedule, it is expected to start operating no earlier than 2039.
Unfortunately, this means that the development of fusion energy may not be in time to become an effective solution to the climate crisis in the coming decades.
Source: livescience
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