Nuclear blend facility: JET interior with superimposed plasma. Credit: UKAEA
European joint experiment prepares shift to massive ITER project.
Following the example of the sun, fusion power plants aim to fuse the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium and release large amounts of energy in the process. In future power plants, tritium will be formed from lithium throughout energy production.
Explores deuterium-tritium mixes in preparation for ITER
” We can check out the physics in fusion plasmas extremely well by working with hydrogen or deuterium, so this is the basic worldwide,” explains IPPs Dr. Athina Kappatou, who with her IPP colleagues Dr. Philip Schneider and Dr. Jörg Hobirk led considerable parts of the European collective experiments at JET.” However, for the transition to the worldwide, massive, combination experiment ITER, it is necessary that we prepare for the conditions prevailing there.” ITER is presently under construction in Cadarache, in southern France, and is anticipated to be able to launch ten times as much energy as is fed into the plasma in regards to heating energy, using deuterium-tritium fuel.
To bring the JET experiment as close as possible to future ITER conditions, the previous carbon lining of the plasma vessel was changed by a mixture of beryllium and tungsten, as is also planned for ITER, between 2009 and 2011. The metal tungsten is more resistant than carbon, which, moreover, stores excessive hydrogen. Nevertheless, the now metal wall locations new needs on the quality of the plasma control. The current experiments demonstrate the successes of the researchers: At temperature levels ten times greater than those at the center of the sun, record levels of produced blend energy have actually been attained.
ITER is presently under construction in Cadarache, in southern France, and is expected to be able to release ten times as much energy as is fed into the plasma in terms of heating energy, using deuterium-tritium fuel.
Prior to the change of the wall product, JET had set the world energy record in 1997 with a plasma that produced 22 megajoules of energy. “What we have learned in the past months will make it much easier for us to prepare experiments with combination plasmas that generate much more energy than is needed to warm them.”
In the current record-breaking experiment, the fusion responses in JET released an overall of 59 megajoules of energy in the form of neutrons throughout a five-second stage of a plasma discharge. The English fusion center “Culham Centre for Fusion Energy” in Culham near Oxford is accountable for the technical operations, while briefly seconded researchers and technicians from the EUROfusion laboratories work on the facility on a project basis.
World record under ITER-like conditions
Prior to the change of the wall product, JET had set the world energy record in 1997 with a plasma that produced 22 megajoules of energy. This record stood until now. “In the most recent experiments, we wished to prove that we might produce substantially more energy even under ITER-like conditions,” describes IPP physicist Dr. Kappatou. Numerous hundred researchers and researchers were associated with years of preparation for the experiments. They utilized theoretical techniques to determine in advance the criteria they needed to acquire to create the plasma in order to attain their goals. The experiments validated the forecasts in late 2021 and provided a new world record: JET produced stable plasmas with deuterium-tritium fuel that launched 59 megajoules of energy.
To produce net energy– that is, to release more energy than the heating systems supply– the experimental center is too little. “What we have learned in the past months will make it much easier for us to prepare experiments with combination plasmas that produce much more energy than is needed to warm them.”
Background info: Megawatts vs. Megajoules
In the current record-breaking experiment, the combination responses in JET launched an overall of 59 megajoules of energy in the type of neutrons throughout a five-second stage of a plasma discharge. Expressed in systems of power (energy per time), JET achieved a power output of just over 11 megawatts averaged over five seconds. The previous energy record, embeded in 1997, was just under 22 megajoules of overall energy and 4.4 megawatts of power averaged over five seconds.
About JET
JET was jointly created and developed by the members of the European fusion program EUROfusion and has actually been jointly run since 1983. The English combination center “Culham Centre for Fusion Energy” in Culham near Oxford is accountable for the technical operations, while temporarily seconded researchers and specialists from the EUROfusion laboratories work on the facility on a campaign basis. With numerous secondments, IPP is an important participant in the JET program.
About Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
The research carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany (places: Garching near Munich and Greifswald) is concerned with examining the physical basis of a combination power plant. Like the sun, such a plant aims to generate energy from fusion of atomic nuclei. IPPs research study is part of the European combination program. With its workforce of approximately 1,100 IPP is one of the biggest fusion proving ground in Europe.