S. Korea succeeds in mass production of nuclear fusion fuel

S. Korea succeeds in mass production of nuclear fusion fuel

Dam25.com Aug. 24, 2016 DAEJEON, Aug 24 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s state-run laboratory said Wednesday that it has successfully developed a technology for the mass production of tritium for nuclear fusion energy. The technology allows the annual production of more than 50 kilograms of tritium, which is one of two core fuels used for nuclear … Read more

PPPL and Princeton help lead a new center to understand and mitigate runaway electrons that pose a challenge for ITER

PPPL and Princeton help lead a new center to understand and mitigate runaway electrons that pose a challenge for ITER

PPPL By John Greenwald | August 22, 2016 Physicist Dylan Brennan (Photo by Elle Starkman/Office of Communications) Runaway electrons, a searing, laser-like beam of electric current released by plasma disruptions, could damage the interior walls of future tokamaks the size of ITER, the international fusion experiment under construction in France. To help overcome this challenge, … Read more

UK Atomic Energy Authority gets a new chief executive

UK Atomic Energy Authority gets a new chief executive

Physics World Michael Banks | Aug 19, 2016 Fusion’s future: Ian Chapman will take the helm at the UKAEA The UK fusion scientist Ian Chapman has been named as the next chief executive of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). On 1 October Chapman will succeed Steve Cowley, who has been head of the authority … Read more

How to keep the superhot plasma inside tokamaks from chirping

How to keep the superhot plasma inside tokamaks from chirping

PPPL By Raphael Rosen | August 19, 2016 (Photo by Elle Starkman) PPPL scientist Vinícius Duarte “Chirp, chirp, chirp.” The familiar sound of birds is also what researchers call a wave in plasma that breaks from a single note into rapidly changing notes. This behavior can cause heat in the form of high energy particles … Read more

Real innovation in a virtual world

Real innovation in a virtual world

CCFE 18/08/2016 Jonathan Naish from CCFE’s Technology Department has won a €12,500 prize in the SOFT (Symposium on Fusion Technology) innovation competition for his new software development, VORTEX. VORTEX softwareThe VORTEX (Virtual Operator RadiaTion EXposure) software prototype combines virtual reality environments with the high-fidelity 3D data output of radiation transport calculations, such as gamma radiation … Read more

Culham Science Centre nuclear experts fear quarry dust

Culham Science Centre nuclear experts fear quarry dust

BBC 16 August 2016 The Joint European Torus is based at Culham Science Centre Scientists are concerned dust from a planned quarry could affect their nuclear fusion experiments. Hills Quarry Products wants to dig out 2.5 million tonnes of sand and gravel from an Oxfordshire site over 10 years. The Culham Science Centre (CSC), which … Read more

LPP Fusion August 15 update

LPP Fusion August 15 update

Next Big Future August 15, 2016 LPPFusion is trying to develop aneutronic fusion with a dense plasma focus device. A dense plasma focus (DPF) is a machine that produces, by electromagnetic acceleration and compression, a short-lived plasma that is hot and dense enough to cause nuclear fusion and the emission of X-rays and neutrons. The … Read more

Simulations by PPPL physicists suggest that magnetic fields can calm plasma instabilities

Simulations by PPPL physicists suggest that magnetic fields can calm plasma instabilities

Eureka Alert 15-AUG-2016 IMAGE: MAGNETIC PERTURBATIONS IN A FUSION PLASMA ARE SHOWN. CREDIT: GERRIT KRAMER Physicists led by Gerrit Kramer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have conducted simulations that suggest that applying magnetic fields to fusion plasmas can control instabilities known as Alfvén waves that can reduce the … Read more

Truck sized nuclear fusion reactors appear on the horizon

Truck sized nuclear fusion reactors appear on the horizon

Global Futurist 13th August 2016 | Matthew Griffin Tokomak Energy aims to build mini-nuclear reactors and announces target of producing electricity by 2025 and feeding power into the grid by 2030 Nuclear fusion needs a “Wright brothers” moment, to convince the world of its promise of unlimited clean and safe energy and so unlock significant … Read more