Although nuclear fusion is seen as a great solution to the high energy demand that humanity needs, it is not yet able to enter our lives. As the scientific world continues to work at full speed to make this energy method possible, a big announcement came today.
While very large facilities and systems were needed to achieve nuclear fusion, scientists in Germany have made a discovery that will succeed in overcoming this need. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) could be pioneers to confine plasmas at millions of degrees Celsius to a small space.
Fusion reactors can be of smaller volume:
According to research published in Physical Review Letters, the ITER experimental reactor under construction in France will enable the most advanced way to generate energy in a fusion power plant, thanks to the tokamak experiment called ‘ASDEX Upgrade’. Moreover, this energy will be obtained in a much lower cost and much more compact system.
Before going into details, it is useful to know the existing fusion reactors. Today’s nuclear fusion reactors and power plants operate thanks to huge plasma chambers called ‘tokamak’. The plasma, which reaches a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, is trapped in a magnetic field inside the walls inside this chamber. In this way, the plasma does not interact with the walls and, in simple terms, the walls do not melt or get damaged.
The newly developed system actually continues to follow the logic of tokamak. But it does include significant changes in the structure of the trapped plasma. He succeeded in reducing at least 25 centimeters by 5 centimeters between the lowest point of the plasma (the X point) and the so-called ‘deflector’, which plays a critical role in the buckle.
This feat was made possible thanks to the so-called “X point radiator”. Discovered about 10 years ago, the X-point radiator was formed in specially shaped magnetic cages when the amount of nitrogen added to the plasma exceeded a certain value.
This phenomenon resulted in the formation of a small, dense volume that diffuses particularly strongly in the UV range. This phenomenon can be seen as a ring-shaped glowing plasma inside the tokamak, emitting both visible light and UV radiation.
It was also discovered that the X point radiator reduces the distance between the X point and the deflector. Professor of Physics at IPP, Dr. Tilmann Lunt shared his discoveries as follows:
What will this discovery do?
- The deflectors inside the tokamaks can be designed much smaller.
- The volume of the vacuum area inside the tokamak will be reduced as the plasma will be closer to the deflector.
- If the vacuum field volume of the existing tokamaks is combined with the X point radiator, the plasma volume can be increased by almost two times. Therefore, the fusion energy output will also increase.
It is stated that many experiments still need to be carried out to understand that the effect of the X-point radiator is certain. The ASDEX Upgrade that made the event possible is scheduled to be integrated into the Garching tokamak in 2024.
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