7:37:00 PM
- Experts injected hydrogen into reactor and heated it to create plasma
- This effectively mimicked conditions inside the sun and other stars
- In December, the scientists proved the reactor could work with helium
- It's part of a global effort to harness nuclear fusion - a clean energy source
Scientists
in northeast Germany have successfully completed their latest experiment
on the road to harnessing nuclear fusion power.
Researchers
at the Max Planck Institute injected a tiny amount of hydrogen and
heated it until it became plasma, effectively mimicking conditions
inside the sun.
It's
part of a worldwide effort to harness nuclear fusion, a process in
which atoms join at extremely high temperatures and release large
amounts of energy.
Researchers at the Max Planck
Institute have injected a tiny amount of hydrogen and heated it until it
became plasma (pictured), effectively mimicking conditions inside the
sun. It's part of a worldwide effort to harness nuclear fusion, a
process in which atoms join at high temperatures and release large
amounts of energy
Advocates
acknowledge that the technology is likely many decades away, but argue
that - once achieved - it could replace fossil fuels and conventional
nuclear fission reactors.
Construction
has already begun in southern France on ITER, a huge international
research reactor that uses a strong electric current to trap plasma
inside a doughnut-shaped device long enough for fusion to take place.
The
device, known as a tokamak, was conceived by Soviet physicists in the
1950s and is considered fairly easy to build, but extremely difficult to
operate.
The
team in Greifswald, a port city on Germany's Baltic coast, is focused
on a rival technology invented by the American physicist Lyman Spitzer
in 1950.
Called
a stellarator, the device has the same doughnut shape as a tokamak but
uses a complicated system of magnetic coils instead of a current to
achieve the same result.
The
Greifswald device should be able to keep plasma in place for much
longer than a tokamak, said Thomas Klinger, who heads the project.
'The stellarator is much calmer,' he said in a telephone interview.
'It's far harder to build, but easier to operate.'
Known
as the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, or W7-X, the device was first fired
up in December using helium, which is easier to heat.
Helium also has the advantage of 'cleaning' any minute dirt particles left behind during the construction of the device.
David
Anderson, a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin who
isn't involved in the project, said the project in Greifswald looks
promising so far.
'The
impressive results obtained in the startup of the machine were
remarkable,' he said in an email. This is usually a difficult and
arduous process.
The hydrogen was heated in the
doughnut-shaped Wendelstein 7-X machine (illustrated). Called a
stellarator, the device uses a complicated system of magnetic coils to
trap plasma long enough for fusion to take place
The Wendelstein 7-X machine in
Germany, which cost €1billion to build, creates conditions similar to
those inside stars (illustrated). It's part of a worldwide effort to
harness nuclear fusion, a process in which atoms join at extremely high
temperatures and release large amounts of energy
The nuclear fusion research centre at the
Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is pictured. The device was
first fired up in December using helium, which is easier to heat
Fusion involves placing hydrogen atoms
under high heat and pressure until they fuse into helium atoms. In
stellarators, plasma is contained by external magnetic coils which
create twisted field lines around the inside of the vacuum chamber
(illustrated)
'The
speed with which W7-X became operational is a testament to the care and
quality of the fabrication of the device and makes a very positive
statement about the stellarator concept itself.
'W7-X is a truly remarkable achievement and the worldwide fusion community looks forward to many exciting results.'
While
critics have said the pursuit of nuclear fusion is an expensive waste
of money that could be better spent on other projects, Germany has
forged ahead in funding the Greifswald project.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who holds a doctorate in physics, attended today's event, which took place in her constituency.
The massive microwave ovens that will
turn hydrogen into plasma, eventually reaching 100 million°C. This has
been designed to mimic the conditions seen inside the sun (stock image)
The first plasma created in
Wendelstein 7-X is pictured. It consisted of helium and reached a
temperature of about 1 million°C. Over the coming years W7-X, which
isn't designed to produce any energy itself, will test the extreme
conditions such devices will be subjected to if they are ever to
generate power
Technical director Hans-Stephan Bosch
holds up computer images showing the first plasma generated at the
'Wendelstein 7-X' nuclear fusion research centre at the Max Planck
Institute for Plasma Physics in December
Over
the coming years W7-X, which isn't designed to produce any energy
itself, will test many of the extreme conditions such devices will be
subjected to if they are ever to generate power, said John Jelonnek, a
physicist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
Jelonnek's
team is responsible for a key component of the device, the massive
microwave ovens that will turn hydrogen into plasma, eventually reaching
100 million °C.
Compared
to nuclear fission, which produces huge amounts of radioactive material
that will be around for thousands of years, the waste from nuclear
fusion would be negligible, he said.
'It's
a very clean source of power, the cleanest you could possibly wish for.
We're not doing this for us, but for our children and grandchildren.'
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