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Related: About this forumNuclear fusion on brink of being realised, say MIT scientists
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/09/nuclear-fusion-on-brink-of-being-realised-say-mit-scientistsNuclear fusion on brink of being realised, say MIT scientists
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
Fri 9 Mar 2018 05.01 GMT
The dream of nuclear fusion is on the brink of being realised, according to a major new US initiative that says it will put fusion power on the grid within 15 years. The project, a collaboration between scientists at MIT and a private company, will take a radically different approach to other efforts to transform fusion from an expensive science experiment into a viable commercial energy source. The team intend to use a new class of high-temperature superconductors they predict will allow them to create the worlds first fusion reactor that produces more energy than needs to be put in to get the fusion reaction going.
Bob Mumgaard, CEO of the private company Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which has attracted $50 million in support of this effort from the Italian energy company Eni, said: The aspiration is to have a working power plant in time to combat climate change. We think we have the science, speed and scale to put carbon-free fusion power on the grid in 15 years.
The promise of fusion is huge: it represents a zero-carbon, combustion-free source of energy. The problem is that until now every fusion experiment has operated on an energy deficit, making it useless as a form of electricity generation. Decades of disappointment in the field has led to the joke that fusion is the energy of the future and always will be.
The just-over-the-horizon timeframe normally cited is 30 years, but the MIT team believe they can halve this by using new superconducting materials to produce ultra-powerful magnets, one of the main components of a fusion reactor.
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DetlefK
(16,423 posts)There are two known kinds of fusion-reactors: Tokamaks and Stellarators.
Tokamaks are easy to build but unstable during operation.
Stellarators are hard to build but stable during operation.
There are three big problems:
1. You have to control how the plasma flows inside the reactor. For that you need a magnetic field of very, very specific geometry. That's why the german Wendelstein X7 reactor has such a weird shape.
2. The fusion-process creates stuff like Helium and Lithium as exhaust. And they disturb the fusion-process and have to be removed somehow.
3. The fusion-process creates MASSIVE neutron-radiation that eventually destroys ANY shielding over the years.
If these guys use a third, completely new design, that is major news. However 15 years is ridiculously unrealistic if you want to build a brandnew kind of fusion-reactor from scratch.
Pholus
(4,062 posts)Saying 15 years now? Just summarizes how much more we know about what we don't know.
ExciteBike66
(2,357 posts)GreydeeThos
(958 posts)Kablooie
(18,634 posts)Too much of their campaign money comes from current energy providers.
dchill
(38,493 posts)Voltaire2
(13,037 posts)We are much more likely to achieve Medicare for All than functional nuclear fusion.
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)Kilgore
(1,733 posts)It's been "coming soon" since I was a kid in the 60's
Duppers
(28,120 posts)Climate change was the first thing I thought about.