New type of heating for ITER

(Phys.org)—Tests for the heating that is to bring the plasma of the ITER international fusion test reactor to a temperature of many million degrees can go ahead from today: After three years of construction, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) at Garching bei München has officially commissioned the ELISE test rig – the world's largest device of its kind and part of a four-million euro research contract of the "Fusion for Energy" European ITER Agency. Corepiece of the device is an innovative high-frequency ion source developed at IPP. On the ELISE test rig it will now be adapted to the high requirements of ITER.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-elise-iter.html#jCp

ITER (originally an acronym of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at the Cadarache facility in the south of France.

More info here: www.iter.org

Read more articles here: ITER

History of fusion

Now a video about the History of Fusion. Want to learn more? Read my post about ITER machine and fusion.

NSTX fusion project

"DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is getting an earlier-than-expected start on a $94 million, nearly three-year project as the next stage of its mission to chart an attractive course for the development of nuclear fusion as a clean, safe and abundant fuel for generating electricity.

The project will upgrade the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) facility at PPPL, over the next 30 months, with completion slated for 2014. The work will enhance the position of the NSTX as the world’s most powerful spherical torus – or tokamak – a device that controls the superheated and electrically charged gases called plasmas that create fusion power."

in PhysOrg

Fusion energy is when atomic nuclei in plasmas combine at extremely high temperatures and release a burst of energy. Such reactions happens in the stars. But sustaining fusion in the laboratory has proven quite difficult because plasmas that leak from the confinement can halt the reaction. Controlling the plasma is thus a basic goal of fusion research.

ITER aims to produce a sustained fusion reaction in 2020s that will put out ten more energy than is needed to create it.

The NSTX (website) upgrade could also help determine the path to a possible next-generation spherical torus that would produce a burning plasma to complement the output of ITER.

Step forward to control 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 important step forward in the effort to build the future ITER reactor.

in PhysOrg

Nuclear fusion is an attempt to reproduce the energy like the Sun does in an Earth-based reactor. The gas is heated to several million degrees, and creates a plasma. Sometimes in the plasma, an instability will appear and grow large enough to perturb the plasma. The challenge is to reduce the instabilities deep within in the interior of the plasma so that they don’t amplify, while at the same time allowing the reactor to continue to function normally.

The physicists uses antennas that are used as part of the system to heat the plasma. The simulations and the tests showed that heating and instability suppression can be combined, by aiming the radiation slightly off-center in the plasma.

(Adapted from  PhysOrg )

These improvements can then be implemented in the ITER fusion reactor.

Watch this movie here to know more about ITER.

Check more about fusion.

ITER machine

Credit: ITER Organization

Watch this video about ITER machine (futur fusion power).

Fusion - From Here To Reality

An informational video from Physics World on Fusion and ITER.