Scientists Produce Fusion at 100 Million Kelvin for 20 Seconds
A team of researchers connected with several institutions in South Korea, working with two coworkers from Princeton University and one from Columbia University, has accomplished a new milestone in the development of fusion as an energy source. They developed a reaction that generated temperatures of 100 million Kelvin and runned for 20 seconds. In their paper posted in journal Nature, the team explains their work and where they program to take it in the next few years.
For the last several years, researchers have been trying to generate sustainable fusion reactions inside power plants as a way of producing heat for conversion to electricity. Regardless of significant development, the main goal has still not been met.
Scientists handling the issue have found it hard to control fusion reactions; the tiniest deviations lead to instabilities that impede the reaction from continuing. The greatest problem is managing the generated heat, which is in the millions of degrees. Materials could not bear plasma that hot, obviously, so it is levitated with magnets.
Two concepts have been developed: One is called an edge-transport barrier-it shapes the plasma in a manner that prevents it from escaping. The other concept is called an internal transport barrier, which is utilized by the scientists working at Korea’s Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research Center, the place of the new study. It works by creating an area of high pressure near the plasma’s center to control it.
Higher temperatures production
The scientists note that the use of the internal transport barrier causes much denser plasma than the other concept, and that is why they prefer to utilize it. A higher density, they observe, makes it easier to produce higher temperatures near the core. It also triggers to lower temperatures near the edges of the plasma, which is easier on the equipment utilized for containment.
In this most recent test at the facility, the group could generate heat up to 100 million Kelvin and keep the reaction going for 20 seconds. Other groups have either generated identical temperatures or have maintained their reactions going for a similar period; however, this is the first moment both have been attained in one reaction.
Next, the scientists plan to retrofit their facility to use what they found out over the past numerous years of study, replacing some elements, such as carbon elements on the chamber walls with new ones constructed from tungsten, for example.
More information:
H. Han et al, A sustained high-temperature fusion plasma regime facilitated by fast ions, Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05008-1
Read the original article on PHYS.
