Oxstones Investment Club™Unlimited green energy could be right around the corner, according to scientists at MIT who are working on achieving nuclear fusion through a device dubbed Sparc.
This is the process that powers the sun and stars, and involves light elements such as hydrogen smashing together to form heavier elements, like helium.
Huge amounts of energy are released as a result that can be harvested, without pollutants like carbon and radioactive waste being produced.
Experts say this source of energy could be up and running within 15 years, thanks to high-temperature superconductors released commercially in the past few years.
Researchers at MIT have teamed up with a new private company, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), to develop experiments, and eventually reactors, based on the technology.
The partnership aims to build a compact fusion reactor, initially capable of generating 100 MW of power.
CFS announced today that it has attracted an investment of $50 million (£36 million) in funding from the Italian energy company Eni, to make this a reality.
If successful, this could lead to a new generation of full-scale fusion reactors.
‘What you’re looking for is power production technologies that are going to play nicely within the mix that’s going to be integrated on the grid in 10 to 20 years,’ said Zach Hartwig, assistant professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT.
‘The grid right now is moving away from these two- or three-gigawatt monolithic coal or fission power plants.
‘The range of a large fraction of power production facilities in the US is now is in the 100 to 500 megawatt range.
‘Your technology has to be amenable with what sells to compete robustly in a brutal marketplace.’
Key to the development of these reactors are large-bore superconducting electromagnets, made from a newly available superconducting material — a steel tape coated with a compound called yttrium-barium-copper oxide.
Fusion is the process that powers the sun (pictured) and stars, and involves light elements such as hydrogen smashing together to form heavier elements, like helium. Experts say this source of energy could be up and running within 15 years
HOW DOES A NUCLEAR FUSION REACTOR WORK?
Fusion is the process by which a gas is heated up and separated into its constituent ions and electrons.
It involves light elements, such as hydrogen, smashing together to form heavier elements, such as helium.
For fusion to occur, hydrogen atoms are placed under high heat and pressure until they fuse together.
When deuterium and tritium nuclei – which can be found in hydrogen – fuse, they form a helium nucleus, a neutron and a lot of energy.
In a fusion reactor, strong magnetic fields are used to keep plasma – a gaseous soup of subatomic particles – away from the reactor’s walls, so that it doesn’t cool down and lose its energy potential. This graphic shows Tokamak Energy’s experimental design
This is done by heating the fuel to temperatures in excess of 150 million°C and forming a hot plasma, a gaseous soup of subatomic particles.
Strong magnetic fields are used to keep the plasma away from the reactor’s walls, so that it doesn’t cool down and lose its energy potential.
These fields are produced by superconducting coils surrounding the vessel and by an electrical current driven through the plasma.
For energy production, plasma has to be confined for a sufficiently long period for fusion to occur.
When ions get hot enough, they can overcome their mutual repulsion and collide, fusing together.
When this happens, they release around one million times more energy than a chemical reaction and three to four times more than a conventional nuclear fission reactor.
They will produce a magnetic field four times as strong as those used in any existing fusion experiment.
This will lead to a more compact version of a fusion device called a tokamak, widely used in the current generation of fusion devices.
The more compact devices will have a more than tenfold increase in the power produced by a tokamak of the same size.
Once the superconducting electromagnets are developed, likely within the next three years, MIT and CFS will build their Sparc compact fusion experiment, incorporating them into the design.
While Sparc will not turn the heat that it generates into electricity, it will produce as much power as is used by a small city in 10 second bursts.
This would be more than double the power used to heat the plasma in the first place, meaning a total positive net output of power – the ultimate aim of fusion experiments.
Huge amounts of energy are released as a result of fusion reactions that can be harvested, without pollutants like carbon and radioactive waste (pictured) being produced. Sparc will produce as much power as is used by a small city in 10 second bursts (stock image)
It would lead to the creation of a larger power plant, around two times the diameter of the first Sparc device.
Such power plants, which the team say could be demonstrated within 15 years, would become the world’s first true fusion power plants, with a capacity of 200 MW of electricity.
The project is expected to complement research expected to be undertaken at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter).
Iter, the world’s largest fusion experiment, is currently under constructin at a site in southern France.
If successful, it is expected to begin producing fusion energy around 2035.
Sparc is designed to produce a fusion power output about a fifth that of Iter in a device that is roughly 1/65 its size.
WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL THERMONUCLEAR EXPERIMENTAL REACTOR?
Know as Iter, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor aims to use a strong electric current to trap plasma inside a doughnut-shaped enclosure long enough for fusion to take place.
The design, known as a tokamak, was conceived by Soviet physicists in the 1950s but it’s proving tough to build and could be even tougher to operate.
Construction of the reactor in southern France has been dogged by delays and a surge in costs to about €20 billion (£17bn / $23.7 bn).
Iter’s director-general, Bernard Bigot, said in December 2017 that the project is on track to begin superheating hydrogen atoms in 2025, a milestone known as ‘first plasma.’
Iter uses a strong electric current to trap plasma inside a doughnut-shaped device long enough for fusion to take place. It uses a doughnut-shaped device called a tokamak to trap hydrogen that’s been heated to 150 million degrees Celsius
Iter is the most complex science project in human history.
Hydrogen plasma will be heated to 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times hotter than the core of the Sun, to enable the fusion reaction.
The process happens in a donut-shaped reactor, called a tokamak 1, which is surrounded by giant magnets that confine and circulate the superheated, ionized plasma, away from the metal walls.
The superconducting magnets must be cooled to -269°C (-398°F), as cold as interstellar space.
Scientists have long sought to mimic the process of nuclear fusion that occurs inside the sun, arguing that it could provide an almost limitless source of cheap, safe and clean electricity.
Unlike in existing fission reactors, which split plutonium or uranium atoms, there’s no risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction with fusion and it doesn’t produce long-lived radioactive waste.
The Tokamak and its plant systems housed in their concrete home. An estimated one million parts will be assembled in the machine alone
Iter nuclear engineers have recruited rocket scientists to help create super-strong materials that can withstand temperatures hotter than the sun.
The Iter team claim a technique for building launcher and satellite components has turned out to be the best way for constructing rings to support the powerful magnetic coils inside the machine.
Spanish company Casa Espacio is making the rings using a method they have perfected over two decades of building elements for the Ariane 5, Vega and Soyuz rockets.
The magnets themselves are massive. Engineering & Technology reports that the one currently being built is 45 feet (14 metres) long, 30 feet (10 metres) wide, and three feet (two metres) deep.
The final design will use 18 of these magnets, each weigh between 113,400kg and 226,800kg (250,000 and 500,000 lbs)—which is about the same as a Boeing 747.
Casa Espacio has been at the forefront of developing a technique for embedding carbon fibres in resin to create a strong, lightweight material to hold these magnets.
The composite is ideal for rocket parts because it retains its shape and offers the robust longevity needed to survive extreme launches and the harsh environment of space for over 15 years.
Tags: Casa Espacio, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, compact fusion reactor, energy production, fusion experiments, high-temperature superconductors, international thermonuclear experimental reactor, MIT researchers, nuclear fusion, nuclear science, superconducting electromagnets, unlimited green energy