Nuclear fusion breakthrough
Date: 14 February 2022 Tags: EnergyIssue
The JET laboratory in Britain has smashed the record in the amount of energy it can extract through nuclear fusion.
Background
Nuclear fusion in a controlled environment has been a work in progress since many years and its commercial use has not yet been obtained.
Details
-
The recent experiment managed to produce 59 MJ of energy over five seconds. This is more than double what was achieved in similar tests back in 1997.
-
The JET is collaboration between EU member states, Switzerland, the UK and Ukraine, founded in 1978.
Significance of results
-
The energy harvested is very less but it strengthens design choices that have been made for a bigger fusion reactor now being constructed in France.
-
The experiment demonstrated the greatest amount of energy output from the fusion reactions of any device in history.
ITER facility
It is a project carried out in France by a consortium of countries such as the US, EU, Britain, China and also India.
Nuclear fusion
-
Nuclear fusion works on the principle that energy can be released by forcing together atomic nuclei.
-
This naturally happens on stars including the Sun, which give out energy through this process.
-
The fuel to produce the plasma will be a mix of two forms, or isotopes, of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium.
Importance of nuclear fusion
-
Successful harvesting could lead to potential of virtually unlimited supplies of low-carbon, low-radiation energy.
-
Fusion reaction will produce no greenhouse gases and only very small amounts of short-lived radioactive waste.
-
Theoretically, a small glass of deuterium and tritium could power a house for hundreds of years. The fuels are also easily obtained.
Challenges
The biggest challenge is to sustain the process and prevent it from extinguishing. There is also a need to reduce energy consumption.