Anhui research facility expected to provide plasma physics insights crucial to setting up industrial-size reactors to generate clean energy.
Category: nuclear energy – Page 81
Powerful Lasers Have Put Us at the ‘Threshold’ of Nuclear Fusion Ignition
For a few brief moments, the high-powered lasers generated 1.3 megajoules of fusion energy.
A breakthrough experiment last month at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California has turned up a whopping 1.3 megajoules of energy, or about three percent of the energy contained in one kilogram of crude oil. The work, as outlined in the journal Physical Review E, puts physicists “at the threshold of fusion ignition,” according to the lab’s press release.
Nuclear fusion, in the simplest terms, is a reaction in which atoms are smashed together to generate an abundance of energy. In some ways, it’s less dangerous than nuclear fission —a process that involves splitting heavy, unstable atoms into two lighter ones—and has the potential to create a lot more energy.
All of today’s functional nuclear power plants currently use nuclear fission, and scientists have long been on the hunt for a way to make nuclear fusion a reality; consider it a kind of holy grail of clean energy.
China’s ‘Artificial Sun’ Just Broke a Major World Record For Plasma Fusion
Just seven months after it announced a milestone record for plasma fusion, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has absolutely smashed it.
Their ‘artificial Sun’ tokomak reactor is has maintained a roiling loop of plasma superheated to 120 million degrees Celsius (216 million degrees Fahrenheit) for a gobsmacking 1,056 seconds, the Institute of Plasma Physics reports.
This also beats the previous record for plasma confinement of 390 seconds, set by the Tore Supra tokamak in France in 2003.
China’s $1 trillion ‘artificial sun’ fusion reactor just got five times hotter than the sun
The Chinese experimental nuclear fusion reactor smashed the previous record, set by France’s Tore Supra tokamak in 2003, where plasma in a coiling loop remained at similar temperatures for 390 seconds. EAST had previously set another record in May 2021 by running for 101 seconds at an unprecedented 216 million F (120 million C). The core of the actual sun, by contrast, reaches temperatures of around 27 million F (15 million C).
Related: 5 sci-fi concepts that are possible (in theory)
“The recent operation lays a solid scientific and experimental foundation towards the running of a fusion reactor,” experiment leader Gong Xianzu, a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a statement.
China sets new world record in development of ‘artificial sun’
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China has achieved a new world record in its development of a “man-made sun”, a fusion energy reactor. Scientists managed to sustain the reactor, at the extreme temperature of 70 million degrees Celsius for 1,056 seconds. In May, scientists also made a breakthrough, when they were able to achieve a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds. China’s development of an “artificial” sun is part of its mission to find solutions to create limitless clean energy.
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China, US, UK, France and Russia pledge to avoid nuclear war
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Five of the world’s largest nuclear powers pledged on Monday to work together toward “a world without nuclear weapons” in a rare statement of unity amid rising East-West tensions.
“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” said the joint statement, which was issued simultaneously by the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France. “As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons — for as long as they continue to exist — should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war.”
The statement also stressed the importance of preventing conflict between nuclear-weapon states from escalating, describing it as a “foremost responsibility.”
China’s ‘Artificial Sun’ Has Just Hit a New Nuclear Fusion Milestone
China’s “artificial sun”, a nuclear fusion tokamak reactor that could provide almost limitless amounts of emission-free energy, set a new record on Thursday by running for 1,056 seconds at high plasma temperature, according to a report from Xinhua.
The particular tokamak reactor is called EAST, which stands for Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak. It is located in Hefei, China, and it also broke a record in May when i… See more.
Europe’s power crunch shuts down factories as prices hit record
The crunch is so severe that it’s forcing factories to curb output or shut down altogether. Aluminium Dunkerque Industries France has curbed production in the past two weeks due to high power prices, while Trafigura’s Nyrstar will pause production at its zinc smelter in France in the first week of January. Romanian fertilizer producer Azomures temporarily halted output.
Electricite de France SA said last week it would halt four reactors accounting for 10 per cent of the nation’s nuclear capacity, straining power grids already facing cold weather. At the beginning of January, 30 per cent of France’s nuclear capacity will be offline, increasing the reliance on gas, coal and even oil.
