One by One, the Problems of Nuclear Fusion Are Being Solved. Optimism Is Overtaking Negativity

The challenges posed by nuclear fusion are daunting. Replicating the same reactions inside stars on Earth and on a small scale is a titanic challenge. Nevertheless, humanity has already traveled a significant part of this path. Some believe that society has hardly advanced in nuclear fusion since World War II, but as you will see in this article, that’s not the case. Much remains to be done, but significant progress has been made.

For power plants equipped with fusion reactors to be viable, engineers must solve the problems they are currently grappling with. The current challenges posed by nuclear fusion lie in engineering, not basic science. Spain will play an active role in finding a solution to one of these problems, thanks to the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility DEMO-Oriented NEutron Source (IFMIF-DONES), which is currently under construction in Escúzar, Granada.

Its main objective is to develop a source capable of producing high-energy neutrons with the required intensity and volume of irradiation to test materials intended for future fusion power plants. This is one of the remaining challenges, but many others have already been overcome thanks to the excellent work of scientists in experimental reactors such as the now-retired Joint European Torus (JET)  in Oxford, England. I hope the JT-60SA reactor in Naka, Japan, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will meet expectations.

EUROfusion and the University of Texas Have Both Made Significant New Contributions

Imagine a nuclear fusion reactor as a kind of pressure cooker in which two essential ingredients—deuterium and tritium—are cooked. For the nuclei of these two hydrogen isotopes to fuse and release the neutron that will ultimately enable a large amount of energy, they must be confined in an extremely hot plasma. For this process to occur, the temperature must reach at least 270 million degrees Fahrenheit.

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Fortunately, scientists know how to achieve this, so subjecting the nuclei to the necessary pressure and temperature is no longer a problem. However, keeping the turbulence under control remains a challenge. Otherwise, the plasma becomes unstable, its density in critical regions is affected, and the fusion reaction can’t be sustained over time. The mechanisms governing this process are very complex. Still, physicists and engineers working on fusion energy are gradually gaining a better understanding of them.

Broadly speaking, the aim is to minimize turbulence to keep plasma energy loss to a minimum. Two of the tools available to these technicians are AI systems, which play a vital role in understanding the mechanisms that govern plasma behavior, and rare-earth barium copper oxide superconducting magnets. The SPARC fusion reactor, which is being developed by the U.S. company Commonwealth Fusion Systems, is a prime example of this.

EUROfusion, the European organization responsible for promoting and supporting the scientific research needed to bring the European nuclear fusion plan to fruition, has recently made an essential contribution to this field. It has demonstrated that, in tokamak reactors such as JET and ITER, a mode of operation known as quasi-continuous exhaust (QCE) can be used. QCE eliminates the periodic instabilities at the plasma edge while maintaining high density in this gas region and preserving a very high energy level. Plasma confinement and stabilization are gradually becoming less problematic.

A team of researchers from the University of Texas and Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S. made another recent contribution worth examining briefly. In an article published in Physical Review Letters, these scientists propose creating a leak-free magnetic confinement system that, according to their calculations, is 10 times faster than the standard method without sacrificing precision.

This innovation is important because it helps solve the problem of containing high-energy particles inside the reactor and thus avoids temperature and density loss in critical regions of the plasma. As I mentioned earlier, much remains to be done in nuclear fusion. Still, commercial fusion power is getting closer every day.

Image | ITER

Related | ITER Addresses One of Nuclear Fusion’s Biggest Challenges: Preventing Incredibly Hot Plasma From Damaging the Reactor