‘Artificial sun’ sets record for time at 100 million degrees in latest advance for nuclear fusion
By Laura Paddison, CNN
3 minute read
Published 7:49 AM EDT, Mon April 1, 2024
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/01/climate/ ... index.html
Scientists in South Korea have announced a new world record for the length of time they sustained temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius — seven times hotter than the sun’s core — during a nuclear fusion experiment, in what they say is an important step forward for this futuristic energy technology.
KSTAR, KFE’s fusion research device which it refers to as an “artificial sun,” managed to sustain plasma with temperatures of 100 million degrees for 48 seconds during tests between December 2023 and February 2024, beating the previous record of 30 seconds set in 2021.
The KFE scientists said they managed to extend the time by tweaking the process, including using tungsten instead of carbon in the “diverters,” which extract heat and impurities produced by the fusion reaction.
The ultimate aim is for KSTAR to be able to sustain plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees for 300 seconds by 2026, a “a critical point” to be able to scale up fusion operations, Si-Woo Yoon said.
Last edited by weatheriscool on Sun Apr 14, 2024 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The world has been on the hunt for cleaner energy for decades, and even though scientists have had some luck with nuclear fusion, there have been multiple roadblocks when it comes to using it every day.
One of those factors is cost, but MIT researchers say they’ve figured out how to clear at least that hurdle.
They say their magnet-based design works not only in a lab setting, but is practical and economically viable.
The data comes from six separate studies that were published in IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, detailing what the scientists call a landmark test.
MIT’s Dennis Whyte explains why they’re so excited about the results.
“Overnight, it basically changed the cost per watt of a fusion reactor by a factor of almost 40 in one day. Now, fusion has a chance.”
First Light Fusion Makes Progress Towards an Economical Working Fusion Reactor
April 15, 2024 by Brian Wang
First Light Fusion is developing an inertial fusion with a pulsed process. They fire physical projectiles at high speeds like 40 kilometers per second to generate fusion OR they may use high-power lasers to generate the fusion. They are working on methods with the targets and other systems to amplify the pressures generated and increase the power produced.
They have managed to increase the distance the reaction-starting projectile travels by a factor of 10. The projectile can travel at least 10 centimeters without vaporizing. They do not want the physical project to get vaporized when they accelerate it. They want it to stay as a physical object so that it can hit the target from about 3 meters away. This lets them protect key expensive parts of a working reactor. IF the parts were too close to the actual fusion reaction then it would become too expensive to replace parts. The object travelled 10 centimeters instead of less than 1 centimeter. It is likely out of the danger zone and it should be able to travel a few meters. Further tests will confirm if that is the case.
MUSE Nuclear Fusion Stellerator Made with Off the Shelf Parts and 3D Printed Shell
April 22, 2024 by Brian Wang
The Princeton Physics Lab has built a Stellarator nuclear fusion reactor prototype using permanent magnets. This is a scientific first that enables mostly off the shelf magnet for simple and low cost experiments to test new concepts for future fusion power plants.
Stellarators typically rely on complicated electromagnets that have complex shapes and create their magnetic fields through the flow of electricity. Those electromagnets must be built precisely with very little room for error, increasing their cost. However, permanent magnets, like the magnets that hold art to refrigerator doors, do not need electric currents to create their fields. They can also be ordered off the shelf from industrial suppliers and then embedded in a 3D-printed shell around the device’s vacuum vessel, which holds the plasma.
“MUSE is largely constructed with commercially available parts,” said Michael Zarnstorff, a senior research physicist at PPPL. “By working with 3D-printing companies and magnet suppliers, we can shop around and buy the precision we need instead of making it ourselves.”