Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on August 12, 2015
Nuclear fusion reactor in just five years?
The greatest fusion reactor in our neighborhood sends energy free for the harvesting from about 8 light-minutes away, where it safely burns and flares without any help at all from the small, blue marble that orbits it once a year. But expansion of photovoltaic technologies to capture that solar power has had a hard time competing against the big boys of power: petroleum, coal, and nuclear reactors.
It’s no wonder scientists and engineers continue to pursue the dream of harnessing nuclear fusion here on Earth. A “small, modular, efficient fusion plant” designed by a team at MIT promises new hope for growth in the fusion industry. Equipment of similar scale and complexity has been constructed in “within about five years” the team notes.
By comparison, August 4th marked the fifth anniversary of breaking ground on the world’s biggest nuclear fusion reactor project, the ITER* project. So far, the site remains a forest of cranes and rebar:
iter/Promo imageITER, five years old
David Kingham, CEO of UK-based Tokamak Energy Ltd., who reviewed the MIT design but is not connected with the research, praises the work:
“Fusion energy is certain to be the most important source of electricity on earth in the 22nd century, but we need it much sooner than that to avoid catastrophic global warming. This paper…should be catching the attention of policy makers, philanthropists and private investors.”
The MIT affordable, robust, compact (ARC) reactor uses the same tokamak (donut-shaped) architecture as the ITER plant, but applies much stronger magnets based on commercially available, rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconductors. The stronger magnetic field contains the super-hot plasma, a mass of gases in which hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium (yes, the party balloon gas that gives you a squeaky voice), in a much smaller device. This reduces the diameter to half of ITER’s, making building it quicker and more economical.
But the size advantage is not the only bonus. The power potential in fusion reactors increases by the fourth power of the increase in the magnetic field. This means doubling the magnetic field strength can produce16 times as much power.
The MIT ARC reactor has other benefits as well: the fusion power core can be removed from the donut-shaped reactor without having to dismantle the entire device (useful for testing materials) and a liquid replaces most of the solid blanketing the fusion chamber, allowing circulation to reduce degradation in the high temperature application and facilitating replacement which reduces the cost of maintenance.
On paper, the ARC design could achieve Q = 3, but that could improve to 5-6, and generate electricity for about 100,000 people. (ITER scientists hope to be the first to achieve the holy grail of making more energy with a fusion reactor than has to be supplier to power the reactor itself. In fact, the team has set themselves the ambitious target of Q ≥ 10 — or a return of ten times as much electricity as used.)
Read more about it in ARC: A compact, high-field, fusion nuclear science facility and demonstration power plant with demountable magnets in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design.
*[interesting fact: ITER means “the way” in Latin, which is the officially endorsed explanation for the name after International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor was discarded, presumably for being too “nuclear”]
17 Comments on "Nuclear fusion reactor in just five years?"
HARM on Wed, 12th Aug 2015 5:28 pm
Hear that, all you nattering nabobs of negativism? Practical fusion power is now perpetually only *5* years away, instead of being perpetually 20 years away? How’s THAT for progress?
Westexasfanclub on Wed, 12th Aug 2015 7:09 pm
I think there’s so much stupid allocation of money in the world, as for example in the military industry, that the scientific exploration of fusion energy is basically cheap an has to be done.
Newfie on Wed, 12th Aug 2015 7:22 pm
Fusion reactor = Snake Oil
Westexasfanclub on Wed, 12th Aug 2015 7:44 pm
Maybe, maybe not.
Nony on Wed, 12th Aug 2015 8:27 pm
ITER is worse than a typical fusion screwup. In addition to all the problems with fusion, it’s a massive clusterfuck of different countries pushing different solutions. Huge pork program. Would cost about one quarter if you just had one country do it. And the pieces would fit together and it would get built faster.
Massive waste of money.
BobInget on Wed, 12th Aug 2015 9:49 pm
We already have a star fusion reactor that
will run out of fuel in another billion years.
Time enough to run past a few more so called civilizations before burn out.
Reminds of the true story of NASA spending millions developing a pen that worked in a weightless environment instead of using pencils.
Roman on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 12:49 am
Thanks for killing off the Neanderthals. At least they had enough brains for long term survival.
There are very few things in life worth the effort to fight for or try to get. Especially this. Bunch of rats fighting over scraps.
apneaman on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 1:10 am
Roman, we killed off all the pure bloods and it’s just us Muggles left.
Modern humans and Neanderthals ‘interbred in Europe’
“The ancient man was found to be more closely related to Neanderthals than any other modern human (Homo sapiens) who has previously been analysed.
Between 6% and 9% of the Oase individual’s genome is from Neanderthals – an unprecedented amount. By comparison, present-day Europeans have between 2% and 4%.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33226416
Given my larger than average head and frame, I figure I’m easily a 4%er. Kinda looking forward to returning to my long lost roots.
Banjo on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 1:59 am
Fusion is and will remain the most important source of energy. Now and into the future. Man made fusion let’s get one working plant and see how cheaply we can scale it out. We need enough for 1 to 1.5 billion of us rich guys first 🙂
apneaman on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 3:16 am
Humans have already used up 2015’s supply of Earth’s resources – analysis
Earth ‘overshoot day’ – the day each year when our demands on the planet outstrip its ability to regenerate – comes six days earlier than 2014, with world’s population currently consuming the equivalent of 1.6 planets a year
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/12/humans-have-already-used-up-2015s-supply-of-earths-resources-analysis
Get them reactors scaled up and we could hit overshoot day by Valentines in no time. Unlimited energy to strip mine and deforest what’s left. Fuck the grand kids.
meld on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 7:02 am
Even if fusion on this scale were possible, it’s probably a really really bad idea. Humans fucked up the planet with a massive amount of surplus energy….what will they do with an infinite amount of surplus energy? geeee let me think 😀
doug on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 9:00 am
The by products of fusion will destroy the materials around the reactor.
Richard Sittel on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 10:09 am
With solar panels already below grid price in 1/2 the US, and dropping 5% a year, I don’t see fusion happening for about 50-60 years. Solar will be almost free in 10 years or so.
peakyeast on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 10:30 am
Yeah – meld… They will make the earth a large version of the death star with one minor change: It is shooting at itself.
Davy on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 11:50 am
Richard, stick around this site and you will see your above AltE thinking get ripped apart on a regular basis. AltE is not the green dream team the greenies make it out to be. Fusion is a fantasy I agree. Oh, Richard, nothing is free.
Bob Owens on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 12:06 pm
Even if fusion is technically possible it will never be economically possible. Better to spend this money on wind/solar and get some real results. Is wind/solar perfect? No, but soon it will be all we will have. Time to wake up America!
penury on Thu, 13th Aug 2015 1:59 pm
I am definitely in the wait and see camp. The U.S. is bankrupt,(they passed broke 10 years ago)and apparently considered to have the strongest currency in the world. In the current world situation we seem to have more oxymorons than plans. From the political and economic situation in the world today 5 years will be too late.