Fusion power is getting closer and closer. In the last JET experiment, with Spanish participation, they managed to keep a plasma (more or less a star) confined, generating an energy of 59 megajoules, for 5 seconds.
During a 1997 experiment, researchers from, Joint European Torus (JET) managed to generate 21.7 megajoules of energy by fusion, a mark that has just been pulverized by the record of 59 megajoules achieved in the new experiment.
Keeping a “star” contained in a tank for five seconds is still not enough. The challenges of nuclear fusion as the energy that powers the future remain enormous. However, with each passing day we are closer. Achieving nuclear fusion is a scientific endeavor by humanity.
Fusion is the process that powers stars like our Sun, called to become a source of unlimited and safe electricity generation using small amounts of fuel.
Reactive nuclei must be stimulated at temperatures about 10 times greater than that of the center of the Sun.
Fusion is a nuclear reaction in which two light nuclei, such as the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, come together to form a heavier nucleus, releasing enormous amounts of energy. The strategy based on magnetic confinement, which is used by JET and also by ITER, requires heating the reacting nuclei to temperatures about 10 times higher than the center of the Sun (estimated at about 15 million degrees Celsius) and thermal insulation surrounding environment through a strong magnetic field (about 100,000 times the Earth’s magnetic field).
Matter at these extreme temperatures consists of a highly ionized gas called plasma. A commercial fusion plant would use the energy produced by fusion reactions to generate electricity. Fusion has enormous potential as a low-carbon energy source.
A historic record has been broken: 59 megajoules, held for 5 seconds
During a 1997 experiment, researchers at Joint European Torus (JET) managed to generate 21.7 megajoules of energy by fusion, a mark that has just been pulverized by the record of 59 megajoules achieved in the new experiment. Fusion power (equivalent to energy generated per second) achieved in 1997 was 4 megawatts on average, while the last JET experiment reached 11 megawatts.
The video is a real shot on the JET. Shows the power log time:
Producing fusion reactions is relatively simple, it can be done in any laboratory with a small accelerator. The difficulty lies in producing a sufficient number of reactions continuously (or at least for long periods of time) so that the energy produced is greater than that invested in the process. 5 seconds is still not enough. But we moved on.
The results are so far the clearest demonstration in 25 years of fusion’s potential to provide safe, low-carbon energy.
Spanish researchers from Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT), participated in the experiment carried out in the Joint European Torus (JET). The results are so far the clearest demonstration in 25 years of fusion’s potential to provide safe, low-carbon energy.
What is JET?
JET is the world’s largest operational magnetic confinement fusion facility. Due to its size and design, the JET device uses materials similar to those that will be used in ITER, making this installation a crucial test bench for the launch of ITER, the most important collaborative scientific project in history. In particular, it is the only fusion facility in the world that, to date, can use the same combination of deuterium and tritium needed in fusion reactors.
CIEMAT researchers Elena de la Luna, who acted as one of the leaders of the group (task force leaders) of the experimental campaign, and Emilia Rodríguez Solano, scientific coordinator of several experiments, belong to the international scientific group of the consortium EUROMerger, who participated in recent experiments carried out on the European JET device.
The path to ITTER
The JET record is the result of more than two decades of progress in nuclear fusion research in Europe and contributes to the preparation of the international ITER project, which is one of the pillars of the EUROfusion strategic plan for the development of nuclear fusion. fusion energy. ITER is an international science project aimed at demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy, which will be the largest experimental fusion facility in the world.
JET used the deuterium and tritium fusion fuel mixture, the one planned for the ITER experiment
The JET used the deuterium and tritium fusion fuel mixture, the one planned for the ITER experiment. As explained by De la Luna, JET is the device that is closest to ITER due to its size and design, so the results obtained in JET “allow to prepare ITER with much more relevant data that we did not have until now”. Furthermore, JET is the only fusion device that can use tritium today, the researcher added.
Rodríguez Solano highlighted the contribution of basic research, which facilitates access to fusion in JET and will do so in ITER in the future. “It was exciting and exhausting to do this work with an international team of 50 people,” said the researcher.
The EUROfusion consortium
the consortium Eurofusion, co-financed by the European Union, it includes 4,800 specialists, students and technicians from 28 countries. Approximately 140 of them are linked to CIEMAT and another 150 to other R&D centers, universities and Spanish industries. Within the consortium, researchers Mervi Mantsinen, from Barcelona Supercomputing Center-National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), and Eleonora Viezzer, from the Plasma Science and Fusion Technology from the University of Seville, are scientific coordinators of two of the JET experiments.
In a context of mitigating the effects of climate change through the decarbonization of energy generation, these results constitute a fundamental step in the scientific-technological roadmap of nuclear fusion as a safe, efficient and low-emission means to face the global energy crisis .
ITER Director-General Bernand Bigot explained that “a sustained pulse of deuterium-tritium fusion at this power level, almost on an industrial scale, is a resounding confirmation for everyone involved in the global pursuit of fusion.” “For the ITER project, the JET results give us great confidence that we are on the right track to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy,” he stressed.