TOKAMAK ENERGY

TOKAMAK ENERGY

Institute of Mechanical Engineers As part of our Innovation campaign, we spoke to Tokamak Energy’s Dr Melanie Windridge about the company’s vision, the role of engineers in society, and what innovation means to her. Tokamak Energy is one of the companies supported by our Stephenson Fund. What does Tokamak Energy do? Tokamak Energy is working … Read more

Fusion Energy: Nuclear Gone Good?

Fusion Energy: Nuclear Gone Good?

earthtalk.org Gus Vannewkirk | 08/03/2016 Dear EarthTalk: What is fusion energy and why are environmentalists so bullish on it? —Mickey Brent, Milwaukee, WI Nuclear fusion may be the most promising energy source that most of us have never heard of. Scientists first discovered fusion as a potential energy source in the 1930’s and have been … Read more

‘Rising star’ to head UK’s nuclear fusion programme

‘Rising star’ to head UK’s nuclear fusion programme

Utility Week Tom Grimwood | 03/08/2016 Ian Chapman has been appointed by the government as the new chief executive of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The 34-year-old ‘rising star’ will take over from Steve Crowley at the beginning of October. Chapman will head up Britain’s nuclear fusion research programme at the Culham Science Centre near … Read more

Clarifying the fusion plasma confinement improvement mechanism

Clarifying the fusion plasma confinement improvement mechanism

Phys.org August 4, 2016 The right side of the figure where the electric field’s absolute value is small corresponds to the L-mode plasma and the left side having large electric field to the H-mode. The black line indicates the experimental value of the electric current and the red line the theoretical value used in the … Read more

Scientists are one step closer to understanding nuclear fusion power

Scientists are one step closer to understanding nuclear fusion power

Business Insider August 3, 2016 A nuclear reactor featured in the film Spiderman 2. The universe is full of phenomena that we can’t fully explain: Black holes, exploding stars, rapidly spinning stellar corpses… In order to get closer to understanding these cosmic oddities, scientists have to constantly push the boundaries of science, advancing technology and … Read more

PPPL researchers combine quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of special relativity to clear up puzzles in plasma physics

PPPL researchers combine quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of special relativity to clear up puzzles in plasma physics

PPPL By John Greenwald | July 29, 2016 (Photo by Elle Starkman/Office of Communications) Graduate student Yuan Shi Among the intriguing issues in plasma physics are those surrounding X-ray pulsars — collapsed stars that orbit around a cosmic companion and beam light at regular intervals, like lighthouses in the sky. Physicists want to know the … Read more

Wendelstein 7-X: Upgrading after successful first round of experiments

Wendelstein 7-X: Upgrading after successful first round of experiments

IPP Isabella Milch | July 08, 2016 Productive scientific programme / Modification in the plasma vessel well underway After about 2,200 plasma pulses since operation began in December 2015 the first experimental campaign on the Wendelstein 7-X research device at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald was successfully concluded in March. Modifications … Read more

Iran Joins Project to Build World’s Biggest Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Iran Joins Project to Build World’s Biggest Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Sputnik News 27.07.2016 Iran has a lot to offer the international ITER project to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device, Iranian experts told Sputnik. Iran is in negotiations to join the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project, a collaboration to build the world’s largest tokamak, a device which uses magnetic fields to … Read more

Thoughts on Fusion-Energy Development

Thoughts on Fusion-Energy Development

By Scott Hsu, Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory July 12, 2016 Challenges at ITER and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) bolster the quip that fusion is always thirty years away. This is increasingly bringing into question fusion’s “monoculture” (e.g., see Dan Clery’s editorial, Dec. 2014). Because renewable and fission energy are being deployed, despite … Read more