We’re one step closer to a future of near-limitless clean energy.
Physicists in Germany just found a way to minimize a major
heat-loss problem plaguing a promising kind of nuclear fusion reactor called a
“stellarator.”
If we could harness the power of nuclear fusion on Earth, it
would be an absolute game changer in the battle against climate change.
Recreating fusion on Earth requires scientists to “put the
sun in a box.”
Fusion doesn’t produce any carbon emissions (like the
burning of fossil fuels) or long-lasting radioactive waste (like nuclear
fission), and unlike solar and wind power, it isn’t dependent on the weather.
Designing a nuclear fusion reactor: Nuclear fusion can only
happen under extreme heat and pressure — Nobel-winning physicist Pierre-Gilles
de Gennes once said recreating it on Earth would require scientists to
essentially put the “sun in a box.”
Scientists have designed a few different “boxes” — nuclear
fusion reactors — that can create the conditions needed for fusion, but they
require more energy than they produce, and until that changes, fusion won’t be
a viable source of power.
Stellarators 101: A stellarator is a type of nuclear fusion
reactor that looks like a massive donut that has been squished and twisted out
of shape. A coil of magnets surrounds the stellarator, creating magnetic fields
that control the flow of plasma within it.
By subjecting this plasma to extreme temperatures and
pressure, a stellarator can force atoms within it to undergo fusion, and
compared to other fusion reactors, stellarators require less power and have
more design flexibility.
However, the device’s design makes it easier for the plasma
to lose heat through a process called “neoclassical transport” — and without
heat, you can’t have sustained fusion.
“It’s really exciting news for fusion that this design has been successful.”
NOVIMIR PABLANT
What’s new? Now, researchers have reduced heat loss in the
world’s largest and most advanced stellarator — called the Wendelstein 7-X — by
optimizing its magnetic coil.
In doing so, they were able to heat the interior of their
nuclear fusion reactor to nearly 54 million degrees Fahrenheit — that’s more
than twice as hot as the sun’s core — and testing confirmed that their design
had specifically minimized heat loss due to neoclassical transport.
“It’s really exciting news for fusion that this design has been successful,” physicist Novimir Pablant said. “It clearly shows that this kind of optimization can be done.”
And now, stellarators are one step closer to being a usable
design for a nuclear fusion reactor.