Magnetic confinement fusion involves suspending plasma in a magnetic field and raising its temperature and pressure to produce nuclear fusion. Inertial confinement fusion is another approach. Fusion power is yet to be successfully generated, but the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is pursuing magnetic confinement fusion. The core of a tokamak reactor must be heated to 100 million Kelvin, and if fusion energy can be mastered, it could become an unparalleled energy source for humanity.
Magnetic confinement fusion is an approach to nuclear fusion that involves suspending a plasma (ionized gas) in a magnetic field and raising its temperature and pressure to high levels. Nuclear fusion is a type of nuclear energy produced when light atomic nuclei – hydrogen, deuterium, tritium or helium – are fused together at great temperatures and pressures. All of the light and heat from the Sun comes from the nuclear fusion reactions going on in its core. It is through this that the Sun can exist at all: the outward pressure of fusion reactions balances the tendency for gravitational collapse.
Although humanity has harnessed fission energy — breaking heavy nuclei — for nuclear power, the power of successful fusion still eludes us. So far, any attempt to generate fusion power consumes more energy than it produces. Magnetic confinement fusion is one of two popular approaches to nuclear fusion: the other is inertial confinement fusion, which involves bombarding a fuel pellet with high-power lasers. There is currently a multibillion-dollar project pursuing each path: the National Ignition Facility in the United States is pursuing inertial confinement fusion, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, an international project, is pursuing magnetic confinement fusion.
Magnetic confinement fusion experiments began in 1951, when Lyman Spitzer, physicist and astronomer, built the Stellerator, a figure-of-eight plasma confinement device. A major breakthrough came in 1968 when Russian scientists presented to the public the design of the tokamak, a torus that would be the design of most magnetic confinement fusion devices to come. In 1991, there was another breakthrough with the construction of the START (Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak) in the UK, a spheromak, or spherical tokamak. Tests have shown this device to be about three times better than most tokamaks at initiating fusion reactions, and spheromaks continue to be an ongoing area of investigation in fusion research.
For fusion reactions to be efficient, the core of a tokamak reactor must be heated to temperatures of approximately 100 million Kelvin. At such high temperatures, the particles have enormous kinetic energy and are constantly trying to escape. One fusion research compares the challenge of magnetically confined fusion to that of squeezing a balloon: if you press hard on one side, it pops out the other. In magnetic confinement fusion, this ‘popping out’ causes the high-temperature particles to collide with the reactor wall, scraping off metal fragments in a process known as ‘sputtering’. These particles absorb energy, lowering the total temperature of the confined plasma and making it difficult to reach the right temperature.
If fusion energy can be mastered, it could become an unparalleled energy source for humanity, but even the most optimistic researchers don’t expect commercial power generation before 2030.
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