- Nikolai Voronin
- Science Correspondent
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The author of the photo, JET/UKAEA
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The wall of the bagel chamber is made of two metals: beryllium and tungsten
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For the first time, a European team of scientists from the JET Physics laboratory located near Oxford demonstrated in practice the possibility of creating thermonuclear power plants – an almost inexhaustible source of clean energy of the future.
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During the JET experiment, which lasted about five seconds, physicists managed to obtain 59 megajoules of usable energy (or about 11 MW), which is more than double the previous world record set during similar experiments in 1997.
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However, it is not even the volume of energy produced that is noteworthy here: this indicator is just quite modest compared to any power plant – about as much will be required to boil 60 electric kettles.
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The main significance of the experiment is that it proved in practice the correctness of the developers of the experimental thermonuclear reactor ITER – “artificial sun”, the construction of which has been going on for a year and a half in the south of France with the active participation of Rosatom.
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“The conducted JET experiment brings us one step closer to the energy of thermonuclear fusion,” Dr. Joe Milnes, head of the technical part of the experiment and responsible for the operation of the reactor, told reporters. – We have demonstrated that we are able to create a small star inside our device – and hold it there for 5 seconds.
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According to Milnes, this marks an entry to a whole new level.
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Why is it important
Existing nuclear power plants produce energy due to a chain nuclear reaction, that is, a controlled process of splitting uranium atoms, accompanied by the release of a significant amount of energy (as well as radioactive waste).
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Thermonuclear fusion is a reverse process in which atoms fuse with each other to form a new chemical element (not to be confused with a compound). This reaction, which leaves practically no harmful emissions, is accompanied by an even more powerful release of energy.
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It is so difficult to control the released energy that for more than half a century physicists have been trying to do this in practice – but so far scientists have only managed experimental samples.
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It is nuclear fusion that feeds the energy of the stars of the Universe visible to us (including our Sun), in the depths of which hydrogen atoms are literally pressed into each other by monstrous gravity, which allows us to maintain the reaction for billions of years.
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However, to reproduce the fusion of nuclei in the laboratory, to put it mildly, is not easy.
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The main problem with existing experimental reactors is that all of them still require more energy to start a thermonuclear reaction than can be obtained as a result of its conduct.
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In addition, thermonuclear fusion takes place in the Sun at a temperature of about 10 million degrees Celsius. On Earth, where gravity is about 30 times weaker than the sun, the reaction needs an even higher temperature – about 100 million degrees.
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The author of the photo, ITER
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Construction of the first working thermonuclear reactor ITER was launched in July 2020 at the Cadarache Research Center in the south of France, 65 km from Marseille
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Since none of the chemical compounds known to science can withstand contact with a substance heated to such a temperature, back in the 1960s Soviet scientists came up with the idea of keeping plasma heated to astronomical temperatures using magnetic traps, locking it in a toroidal chamber (in the form of a bagel) – so that it does not touch the walls.
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ITER should become the first industrial reactor where the fusion reaction can be scaled up and transferred to industrial rails.
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