News tagged with fusion reactor

Dutch team has solution for troubled ITER nuclear fusion reactor

(PhysOrg.com) -- The superconducting cables designed for the ITER fusion reactor (cost: 16 billion euros = $21.2 billion) are unable to withstand the planned forty to sixty thousand charge cycles. Barring a solution, the ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 4

One step closer to controlling nuclear fusion

Using a heating system, physicists have succeeded for the first time in preventing the development of instabilities in an efficient alternative way relevant to a future nuclear fusion reactor. It’s an ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (53) | comments 110 | with audio podcast

Canadian firm bids to commercialize fusion reactor

In the race against world governments and the wealthiest companies to commercialize a nuclear fusion reactor, a small, innovative Canadian firm is hoping to bottle and sell the sun's energy.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Nov 30, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (21) | comments 79

Unexpected connection: Rotation reversal tied to energy confinement saturation

Research on the Alcator C-Mod experiment at MIT has made an unexpected connection between two seemingly unrelated but important phenomena observed in tokamak plasmas: spontaneous plasma rotation and the global ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Nov 11, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Tokamak experiments come clean about impurity transport

A fusion reactor operates best when the hot plasma inside it consists only of fusion fuel (hydrogen's heavy isotopes, deuterium and tritium), much as a car runs best with a clean engine. But fusion fuel reactions ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Nov 10, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 23 | with audio podcast

World's largest fusion device goes back to work

September is commonly the month where things begin to gather pace again, and in the world of fusion energy research, things are no different. European scientists working on the Joint European Torus (JET), ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Sep 05, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 20

Ion Armageddon: Measuring the impact energy of highly charged ions

(PhysOrg.com) -- Much like a meteor impacting a planet, highly charged ions hit really hard and can do a lot of damage, albeit on a much smaller scale. And much like geologists determine the size and speed ...

Physics / General Physics

created Aug 31, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

New probe to uncover mechanisms key to fusion reactor walls

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new tool developed by nuclear engineers at Purdue University will be hitched to an experimental fusion reactor at Princeton University to learn precisely what happens when extremely hot plasmas touch and ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Aug 26, 2011 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Sensors pave the way to using energy from the stars

(PhysOrg.com) -- The international ITER project is setting out to store the energy of stars in a reactor. To meet this challenge, scientists must be able to measure the properties of matter in fusion. A team ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 30, 2011 | popularity 1.3 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Italian scientists claim to have demonstrated cold fusion (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Few areas of science are more controversial than cold fusion, the hypothetical near-room-temperature reaction in which two smaller nuclei join together to form a single larger nucleus while ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 20, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (156) | comments 298 | with audio podcast report

Imaging of Alfven waves and fast ions in a fusion plasma

Fusion plasmas in the laboratory typically reach 100 million degrees. These high temperatures are required to ignite the hydrogen plasma and maintain the fusion burn by the production of high-energy alpha particles. One challenge ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Nov 08, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Vacuum arcs spark new interest

Whenever two pieces of metal at different voltages are brought near each other, as when an appliance is plugged into a live socket, there is a chance there will be an arc between them. Most of the arcs people ...

Physics / Plasma Physics

created Nov 08, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

States agree new funding, schedule for nuclear fusion plan

The European Union and six states backing a multi-billion-dollar nuclear fusion project said Wednesday they had reached a deal on the financing and timetable for the experimental reactor.

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 28, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (13) | comments 13

Findings show promise for nuclear fusion test reactors

Researchers have discovered mechanisms critical to interactions between hot plasma and surfaces facing the plasma inside a thermonuclear fusion reactor, part of work aimed at developing coatings capable of ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 27, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (19) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Nuclear experts seek to advance ITER fusion project

An explosion in costs has cast a cloud over a multi-billion-dollar nuclear fusion project aiming to make the power that fuels the sun a practical energy source on Earth.

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 26, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (17) | comments 26