Fusion News

MagLIF with DT cryo layer could achieve ten thousand times net gain nuclear fusion and it would be very good for fusion space propulsion

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NextBigFuture.com The cheapest, smallest reactors will emerge from the so-called magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) parameter space. This physics regime is a hybrid between the low density magnetic confinement and beyond solid density inertial confinement. Many of the smallest proposed fusion propulsion systems are in fact MIF systems, consistent with this recent study. (The Case and Development … Read more

Tough Questions for ITER’s New Director General, Bernard Bigot

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By Alexander Hellemans 20 Mar 2015 Photo: Lydie Lecarpentier/REA/Redux When ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, was launched in 1985, the plans called for a huge reactor that would demonstrate that the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms would be a source of unlimited energy. Its founding nations (Russia, the United States, Japan, … Read more

Nuclear fusion, the ultimate clean energy

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theForeigner Sunday, 22nd March, 2015 Fusion energy has been a dream for 60 years, but the future looks promising. Nuclear fusion is the joining of two or more atomic nuclei to form a new, distinct nucleus and in the process give off a very significant amount of energy. The energy given off does not contain … Read more

Scientists make breakthrough in understanding nuclear fusion

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SAN DIEGO, March 15 (UPI) — Scientists from General Atomics and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have made a breakthrough in understanding nuclear fusion. They were attempting to figure out how to control potentially damaging heat bursts (ELMs) that regularly occur in a reactor. Researchers were able to use tiny … Read more

Polywell Nuclear Fusion, Boston

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BostonCommons.net When the head of the Atomic Energy Commission at the time, Lewis Strauss, infamously quipped in 1954 that electricity would become “too cheap to meter,” he was likely referring to nuclear fusion, not nuclear fission, the atom-splitting reaction that powers conventional nuclear power plants today. [1] I think that nuclear fission plant should be … Read more

One giant leap for mankind: £13bn Iter project makes breakthrough in the quest for nuclear fusion, a solution to climate change and an age of clean, cheap energy

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UK Independent An idyllic hilltop setting in the Cadarache forest of Provence in the south of France has become the site of an ambitious attempt to harness the nuclear power of the sun and stars. It is the place where 34 nations representing more than half the world’s population have joined forces in the biggest … Read more

Apple’s annual profits could pay for fusion

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At Scienceogram, we’re used to looking at massive numbers in the context of government spending. However, this week the most talked-about figure has come from the world of commerce: Apple’s record-breaking profits. The firm announced that the popularity of the iPhone 6 had contributed to quarterly profits of $18bn, or around £12bn, the largest ever … Read more

An interview with ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot

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ITER 06 March 2015 “We are now entering into manufacturing and preparations for assembly,” says Bernard Bigot. “This new phase requires a new organization—one tailored to meet these two major challenges, because what we have to deliver now is both a research and an industrial facility.” © L.Godart/CEA An academic, scientist and high-level civil servant … Read more

French nuclear expert to lead ITER to construction phase

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E&T Magazine 6 March 2015 By Tereza Pultarova French nuclear energy expert Bernard Bigot was appointed ITER’s new Director General [Credit: ITER] French nuclear energy expert Bernard Bigot has been appointed the new Director General of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) as the project moves from the design to construction phase after years of … Read more

Can Nuclear Fusion save the world?

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TokamakTales by Ailsa Sparkes, Friday, 27 February 2015 When some of the graduates went to the KIT summer school on Fusion technologies last year (see blog post here), David Ward from CCFE gave a talk entitled ‘Future Energy and the Role for Fusion’. As well as leading CCFE’s Power Plant Technology Unit, David works at … Read more