Nuclear fusion is considered the energy of the future. Researchers in the UK have now achieved an energy pulse like never before when fusing atomic nuclei.
Abingdon – Scientists have produced record amounts of power at a European pilot plant developing nuclear fusion reactors in the UK. The researchers released 59 megajoules of energy in the form of heat at the JET facility during a five-second plasma pulse, the British Atomic Energy Agency and the German research center Jülich involved in the project announced on Wednesday. The previous record was 21.7 megajoules.
The experts spoke of an “important milestone” on the way to safe, sustainable energy. The energy generated could power around 35,000 homes during the same period, said Joe Milnes, director of operations at the JET facility. Ian Fells, professor emeritus for energy conversion at the University of Newcastle, also spoke of a “milestone in fusion research”.
“We have shown that we can create a mini-star inside our machine, hold it there for five seconds and get high power,” says reactor manager Dr. Joe Milnes. A mini-star because nuclear fusions are constantly taking place in the sun.
The results “provide the clearest evidence yet of the potential of fusion energy to deliver safe, sustainable and low-carbon energy,” said Forschungszentrum Jülich and the UK Atomic Energy Agency.
JET is a pan-European test facility for the development of nuclear fusion reactors in Oxfordshire, UK and has been in operation since 1983. 350 scientists from EU countries take part in the JET experiments every year, including experts from the Jülich Research Center. Among other things, they designed and built a new combustion chamber wall for the areas that receive the highest heat and particle loads.
In nuclear fusion, atomic nuclei such as those of hydrogen are fused together at extreme temperatures. Enormous amounts of energy are released in the process. Conventional nuclear power plants, on the other hand, generate energy from the fission of atomic nuclei.
In order to bring about nuclear fusion, a considerable amount of energy is required. Nuclear fusion, according to its supporters, could eventually become an alternative to burning fossil fuels and controversial nuclear fission.
A kilo of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times the energy of a kilo of coal, oil or gas, the research center said. When used, no greenhouse gases would be released. “In the future, fusion reactors could meet a significant portion of global energy needs – for many thousands of years.”
JET is currently serving as a key exploration facility for the ambitious international follow-up project Iter. This is a large fusion research project in southern France, with which the EU and other industrial powers from the USA and China to Japan and South Korea want to jointly demonstrate the potential of nuclear fusion technology and work on its practical suitability.
Iter could potentially start operations as early as 2025. According to JET’s Joe Milnes, the facility is about 80 percent complete. According to this, a prototype of a fusion power plant could be built by 2050.
However, nuclear fusion is controversial: environmentalists criticize the high costs and do not consider the technology to be an alternative. Although dozens of experimental reactors have been built since the 1950s, none of them has managed to generate more energy than is required.
