Nuclear Fusion Plasma Power

November 14, 2015

Chinese and US research teams have collaborated together and released some surprising facts on the future of magnetic confinement fusion. The scientists were able to lower the distance between the wall of the chamber and the plasma to achieve high threshold of ignition for fusion reaction.

The researchers from China’s ASIPP and American General Atomics are using bootstrap current methodology that helped plasma expand and come closer to the walls of the reaction chamber. It’s a risky decision, but team took the calculated risk and successfully conducted the experiment.

Today, heating plasmas enters a period of instability also known as “kink mode” in which they oscillate and it becomes very difficult contain them. By using bootstrap current, scientists were able to maintain “magnetic islands” of low plasma turbulence. A working research reactor would obviously help in efficiently designing reactors in the future for real-world application.

Fusion is a way forward toward the technical threshold of power production —but the current research is one of the very first steps of many on the road to powering mankind with the energy of a star.

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/217948-risky-fusion-power-study-pays-off-by-bringing-plasma-close-to-reactor-walls