HOW DOES FUSION POWER WORK?
Fusion involves placing hydrogen atoms under high heat and pressure until they fuse into helium atoms.
When
deuterium and tritium nuclei - which can be found in hydrogen - fuse,
they form a helium nucleus, a neutron and a lot of energy.
This is down by heating the fuel to temperatures in excess of 150 million°C, forming a hot plasma.
Strong
magnetic fields are used to keep the plasma away from the walls so that
it doesn't cool down and lost it energy potential.
These are produced by superconducting coils surrounding the vessel, and by an electrical current driven through the plasma.
For energy production. plasma has to be confined for a sufficiently long period for fusion to occur.
ZERO-EMISSION FUSION REACTOR CLAIMS TO BE CHEAPER THAN COAL
A fuel with no greenhouse emissions or radioactive waste that is almost unlimited, sounds too good to be true.
But scientists have taken one more step to make fusion power useful and affordable.
Engineers
have designed a concept for a fusion reactor which, when scaled up to
the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new
coal-fired plant with similar electrical output.
Fusion,
the process that powers the sun and other stars, entails forging the
nuclei of atoms to release energy, as opposed to splitting them, which
is fission - the principle behind the atomic bomb and nuclear power.
Engineers
from the University of Washington have published their design and
analysis findings and will present them at the International Atomic
Energy Agency's Fusion Energy Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia,
earlie this year.
The
design builds on existing technology and creates a magnetic field
within a closed space to hold plasma in place long enough for fusion to
occur - allowing the hot plasma to react and burn.
The
reactor itself would be largely self-sustaining, meaning it would
continuously heat the plasma to maintain thermonuclear conditions.
Heat
generated from the reactor would heat up a coolant that is used to spin
a turbine and generate electricity, similar to how a typical power
reactor works.
'Right
now, this design has the greatest potential of producing economical
fusion power of any current concept,' said Thomas Jarboe, a professor of
aeronautics and astronautics at the university.
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