A Step Towards The Fusion Nuclear Reactor

[humble3d]

A Step Towards The Fusion Nuclear Reactor

Researchers demonstrate new way to sustain high-performance fusion plasmas

A multinational team led by Chinese researchers in collaboration with U.S. and European partners has successfully demonstrated a novel technique for suppressing instabilities that can cut short the life of controlled fusion reactions. The team, headed by researchers at the Institute of Plasma Physics in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP), combined the new technique with a method that the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has developed for protecting the walls that surround the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions.

The record-setting results of the tests, conducted on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei, China, could mark a key step in the worldwide effort to develop fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy for generating electricity. "This is a very good example of multinational collaboration on EAST," said ASIPP Director Jiangang Li. "I very much appreciate the effort of our collaborators."

A paper reporting the results was published online in the November issue of the journal Nature Physics. U.S co-authors included PPPL physicists Jon Menard and Rajesh Maingi, who headed the wall-conditioning effort, and General Atomics physicist Gary Jackson, a plasma-control expert who helped draft the paper.

The findings could hold particular promise for developers of fusion facilities such as ITER, the international experiment under construction in France. Controlling instabilities that erupt at the edge of the plasma will be crucial to the success of the huge donut-shaped ITER tokamak, which is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion power.

The EAST experiments set a record for the duration of what is called an H-mode, or high-confinement plasma — the type that ITER and other tokamaks will employ. To achieve this duration, the EAST team beamed into the plasma what are known as "lower hybrid wave current drive" microwaves. The antenna-launched beams reshaped the magnetic field lines confining the plasma and suppressed instabilities at the edge of the gas near the interior walls of the tokamak. Controlling these fast-growing instabilities, called "edge localized modes" (ELMs), produced a record life span of more than 30 seconds for the H-mode plasma.

These results suggested a potent new method for suppressing ELMS to create an extended, or long-pulse, plasma. Many methods already exist. Among them are the use of external magnetic coils to alter the field lines that enclose the plasma, and the injection of pellets of deuterium fuel into the plasma during experiments.

Contributing to the EAST results was the PPPL-designed wall treatment, which coated the plasma-facing walls of the tokamak with the metal lithium and inserted lithium granules into experiments to keep the coating fresh. The silvery metal absorbed stray plasma particles and kept impurities from entering the core of the plasma and halting fusion reactions. "When lithium has been used to coat the walls of fusion devices, higher plasma temperature, pressure and confinement have been achieved," PPPL physicists Menard and Maingi said.

"This was good physics," Jackson of General Atomics said of the experiments, noting that long-pulse plasmas will be required for fusion power plants to generate electricity.

Combining microwave beams for ELMs suppression with the advanced lithium wall treatment could thus provide a fruitful new direction for fusion-energy development. This combination of techniques, the Nature Physics paper said, offers "an attractive regime for high-performance, long-pulse operations."

PPPL, on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, N.J., is devoted to creating knowledge about the physics of plasmas — ultra-hot, charged gases — and to developing practical solutions for the creation of fusion energy. Results of PPPL research have ranged from a portable nuclear materials detector for anti-terrorist use to universally employed computer codes for analyzing and predicting the outcome of fusion experiments. The University manages the laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

https://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S38/60/84K06/index.xml?section=topstories,featured&goback=.gde_2245236_member_5813709082372120579#!

[Ambrocious]

http://www.free-energy-info.tuks.nl/

Neato!

Edited December 5, 2013 by Ambrocious

[MrVoice]

http://www.free-energy-info.tuks.nl/

No such thing as free energy. Not on Earth, not anywhere in the universe. Physics is a demanding master and the costs of all reactions, even atomic ones, must be paid. Try just commenting on the post instead of injecting "information" designed to confuse, distort, or distract from the actual subject (and facts).

[Ambrocious]

http://www.free-energy-info.tuks.nl/

No such thing as free energy. Not on Earth, not anywhere in the universe. Physics is a demanding master and the costs of all reactions, even atomic ones, must be paid. Try just commenting on the post instead of injecting "information" designed to confuse, distort, or distract from the actual subject (and facts).

Its comments like that that makes me hope some whistle blower steps forward with evidence that not only the United States government but governments worldwide have been suppressing free energy technology. The question that needs to be asked here is this: Why would they suppress that for? People don't ask enough questions, denial is their preference of escapism.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Ambrocious

[dMog]

http://www.free-energy-info.tuks.nl/

No such thing as free energy. Not on Earth, not anywhere in the universe. Physics is a demanding master and the costs of all reactions, even atomic ones, must be paid. Try just commenting on the post instead of injecting "information" designed to confuse, distort, or distract from the actual subject (and facts).

facts and the actual truth mean nothing to some i am afraid

[Ambrocious]

http://www.free-energy-info.tuks.nl/

No such thing as free energy. Not on Earth, not anywhere in the universe. Physics is a demanding master and the costs of all reactions, even atomic ones, must be paid. Try just commenting on the post instead of injecting "information" designed to confuse, distort, or distract from the actual subject (and facts).

facts and the actual truth mean nothing to some i am afraid

Facts and truth mean quite a bit to me but I appreciate your constructive criticism, it will help me to double down and search harder for information. I can't just drop a free energy device in your lap and even if I did, you would still call me a conspiracy theorist. Even if I turned it on, showed that it's not running on any battery, you still wouldn't believe it. Go watch the documentry Thrive: What on Earth Will it Take? It's a very beautifully done film and a bonus for you dMog, it's NOT made by Alex Jones. I would love to hear your input on the film once you have seen it.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Ambrocious