At MIT found a way to harness the energy of stars
Source:Nuclear energy – the dream of scientists and energy companies may soon become a reality. Of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) and the Commonwealth Fusion Systems has declared readiness to create a working fusion reactor within the next 15 years.
At the heart of obtaining fusion energy is nuclear fusion. Unlike nuclear fission, which is a process of splitting an atomic nucleus into two (more rarely three) nuclei with similar masses, in which the energy is produced, nuclear fusion produces energy in the synthesis (fusion) of the heavier atomic nuclei from lighter ones (e.g. hydrogen into helium). If in the first case we are talking about the principles of work, for example, nuclear power plants, in the second we are talking about processes, such as those that occur in the interiors of stars, including inside our Sun. In nuclear fusion can be produced heat of several hundred million degrees Celsius. And this heat, the researchers say, can be turned into huge amounts of electricity.
The Development of fusion reactors, scientists are yet in the 40-ies of the last century. But every time science is faced with the same challenge on the way for clean energy – it is very difficult to create a reactor capable of withstanding the calculated load, not to mention how to beat.
Currently, the most promising design of fusion reactor is a tokamak – toroidal chamber with very powerful magnets. These magnets create within the chamber a very strong magnetic field holds the hot plasma and thus ensures the conditions necessary for the occurrence of controlled thermonuclear fusion.
Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of technology, jointly with Commonwealth Fusion Systems are going to develop a compact tokamak SPARC, capable of generating 100 megawatts of thermal energy. This thermal energy is not converted into electricity but will be used to create a 10-second pulse energy level which is enough to power a small town. If the experiment is successful, scientists will create a larger reactor that generates 200 megawatts.
Based on a compact tokamak will be a very powerful superconducting magnets made of oxide of yttrium-barium-copper (YBCO), capable of generating a record magnetic field strength. For example, YBCO-magnet created National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, creates a force field to 32 Tesla. In addition, high-temperature superconductor capable of operating at a high temperature of 77 Kelvin (-196,15 degrees Celsius), while most superconductors of other materials operate at temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius).
Not only MIT is currently engaged in finding a solution to the problems of fusion energy. For example, in December 2017, it was reported that the international thermonuclear experimental reactor ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ITER) is built in half. According to the CEO of the project Bernard bigot, the installation is planned to start in 2025. Test ideas that can be applied to larger reactors, is also a British company, Tokamak Energy.
Recommended
What will be the shelter for the first Martian colonists?
Mars is not the friendliest planet for humans While the Red Planet is roaming rovers, researchers are pondering the construction of shelters and materials needed by future Martian colonists. The authors of the new paper suggest that we could use one ...
New proof of string theory discovered
Just a few years ago, it seemed that string theory was the new theory of everything. But today the string universe raises more questions than answers String theory is designed to combine all our knowledge of the Universe and explain it. When she appe...
What is the four-dimensional space?
Modeling camera motion in four-dimensional space. View the world in different dimensions changes the way we perceive everything around, including time and space. Think about the difference between two dimensions and three dimensions is easy, but what...
Related News
Dutch scientists have developed a DNA test for the detection of illegal felling of trees
DNA Tests is no surprise, however, scientists from Holland have managed to find the application of long-known technique: the new DNA test will be used to benefit the environment, namely to determine how the law was made felling of...
#video | Found a way of 3D printing jewelry from liquid metal
In the distant 90-ies Director James Cameron in the second part of the film «Terminator» presented to the robot from liquid metal T-1000. Then such behavior of the metal (with the exception of mercury and of some experim...
Can artificial photosynthesis be an alternative to solar panels?
In 1912, in the journal Science published an article in which Professor Giacomo Ciamician wrote: "Coal is solar energy offers to mankind in its most concentrated form, but the coal is exhausted. Is fossil solar energy the only one...
Svalbard global seed vault, it was decided to improve
On the island of Spitsbergen, located in the Arctic ocean in 2006 was built a unique structure – the world Bank-selenoprecise. It was decided to store planting material for almost all agricultural plants existing in the world, in ...
In the future we are not going to edit the genome. We will create a new
ever since the Sumerians first want to drink beer, and that was thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens had close relationships with Sacharomyces cerevisae, unicellular fungi known as yeast. Due to the fermentation that people can us...
For the first time, scientists want to move the stuff from one place to another
We all seen and read about how the hero of some sci-Fi movie or book flying on a spaceship that uses as fuel the antimatter, and then landed on a hostile planet, pulls out his Blaster, charges of antimatter and... What happens nex...
Every fossil is a small miracle. As noted by bill Bryson in his book "a Short history of almost everything", just one bone in a billion becomes a fossil. In such calculations, all fossilized legacy of the 320 million people living...
Scientists have invented a new way to store data inside DNA
the Future of technology lies not only in the constant growth of computing power of processors or the transition to quantum computers, but also in the evolution of storage devices. Humanity generates a huge amount of information, ...
Five amazing facts about our ancestors that we have learned from DNA
Not so long ago scientists used DNA of one of the oldest English skeletons (10,000 years) to find out how it looked the first inhabitants of Britain. However, ancient DNA of the skeleton is taken not for the first time and reveals...
Scientists got the "impossible" form of ice that can only exist on Uranus
a team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National laboratory Lawrence had a unique form of ice, called superionic ice (superionic ice). The main feature of this ice is that it consists of a solid crystal lattice of oxygen atom...
Created superdivision, on the strength comparable to metal
Titanium alloys, perhaps, one of the most durable materials on our planet. But they have two very unpleasant drawback: they are very heavy and very expensive. Scientists from the University of Maryland (UMD) have invented an alter...
Graphene could solve five major problems of the world
In September 2015, world leaders gathered at the historic UN summit to adopt the goal of sustainable development (SDG). Seventeen of these ambitious goals and indicators will help guide and coordinate government and international ...
China successfully conducted a unique operation to restore the ears of children
a Group of five children in China got new ears, grown on the basis of a detailed three-dimensional models of healthy organs and using their own healthy cells. This is the first such case in the world of medicine. On the work done ...
What will happen to science in the near future?
If you go back 30 years ago, the world would be completely different. The only known planets were the planets of the Solar system. We had no idea what dark energy is. No space telescopes. Gravitational waves were an unproven theor...
Scientists close to creating artificial life forms
it would Seem that the creation of artificial life – the lot fiction. But development in this area being the first year. And the question now is not about artificial intelligence or robotic mechanisms. A group of American research...
Can genetics to make animals smarter?
advances in neural implants and genetic engineering suggest that in the near future we will be able to enhance human intelligence. For example. If we succeed, if we should take the brothers with you? The improvement of the human b...
Cosmetic company L'oreal grows human skin specifically for China
the Cosmetic industry in recent years stepped far forward, and to test new cosmetic products now use a specially grown human skin. But as you know, the skin of people of different nationalities at the micro level may be very diffe...
Robot scientist discovered a new drug
Development and testing of new drugs – employment is extremely long and labor-intensive. But, like everything in the modern world, this area of pharmacology is sometimes to "instruct" robots, because they can calculate all possibl...
Physicists accelerate beams of light in a curved space in the laboratory
Physicists have managed to demonstrate the acceleration of the light rays on flat surfaces when accelerating led to the fact that the rays follow curved trajectories. However, a new experiment has expanded the boundaries of what y...
Scientists have created a gamma ray burst in the laboratory
Gamma ray bursts, the powerful flashes of light — these are the brightest events in our Universe, which do not last longer than a few seconds or minutes. Some are so bright that they can be seen with the naked eye, like burs...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!