MIT nuclear fusion record marks latest step towards unlimited clean energy

[n2doc]

by Damian Carrington

Monday 17 October 2016
A nuclear fusion world record has been set in the US, marking another step on the long road towards the unlocking of limitless clean energy.

A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created the highest plasma pressure ever recorded, using its Alcator C-Mod tokamak reactor. High pressures and extreme temperatures are vital in forcing atoms together to release huge amounts of energy.

Nuclear fusion powers the sun and has long been touted as the ultimate solution to powering the world while halting climate change. But, as fusion sceptics often say, the reality has stubbornly remained a decade or two away for many years.

Now MIT scientists have increased the record plasma pressure to more than two atmospheres, a 16% increase on the previous record set in 2005, at a temperature of 35 million C and lasting for two seconds. The breakthrough was presented at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s fusion summit in Japan on Monday.

more
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/17/mit-nuclear-fusion-record-marks-latest-step-towards-unlimited-clean-energy

[longship]

1. Incremental steps.

Just like battery technology. Plus, Tokamak is decades old tech.

We're still decades from fusion power, if even then. It is a really tough problem.

[DetlefK]

5. My bet is still on the Stellarator.

Tokamak-reactors are easy to build and hard to run.
Stellarator-reactors are hard to build and easy to run.

[GreydeeThos]

3. Lockheed Martin will have a working fusion reactor next year

Lockheed will build a sub-100MW prototype version by 2017

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112736443

[NickB79]

4. I wouldn't hold your breath on that one

Their latest statement is that they'll have a commercial reactor by 2024; the 2017 target was for a prototype, and there's been little word of progress in the past couple of years on even that.

https://www.quora.com/What-happened-to-the-Fusion-Reactor-by-Lockheed-Martin