Another Groundbreaking Leap in Fusion Energy Achieved
A Historic Milestone Achieved in Nuclear Fusion Energy. Researchers at General Atomics Achieve Significant Success in Increasing Plasma Density, a Critical Threshold in Fusion Energy.
Nuclear fusion, the process that powers stars, holds great promise as a clean and sustainable energy source. However, achieving this on a commercial scale requires producing extremely hot and dense plasma within a reactor and simultaneously confining this plasma in a stable manner. Researchers at General Atomics, working under the U.S. Department of Energy, have successfully raised plasma to high-density levels and maintained it for extended periods.
Density and Confinement Challenges
Obtaining denser and better-confined plasma is crucial for the commercial implementation of fusion energy. This plasma, composed of charged particles, needs to reach temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Celsius to overcome the natural repulsive force between particles and initiate the fusion process, where atomic nuclei combine to release tremendous amounts of energy.
Ring-shaped tokamak reactors, which harness powerful magnetic fields, are widely used in research as a leading technology to harness fusion energy. However, tokamak reactors are known to face obstacles in producing super dense plasma. This is referred to as the Greenwald limit.
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What is the Greenwald limit?
The Greenwald limit specifically pertains to the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic field pressure. Named after physicist Martin Greenwald, the Greenwald limit represents a critical threshold defining the maximum pressure that can be sustained along a magnetically confined fusion plasma.
In a fusion reaction, when plasma pressure exceeds a certain threshold relative to magnetic field pressure, confinement of the plasma within the tokamak is compromised or leads to instabilities. Moreover, surpassing this limit can cause significant damage to the tokamak itself.
As we’ve previously reported, the goal in nuclear fusion reactors such as tokamaks and stellarators is to achieve conditions where fusion reactions can occur and large amounts of energy can be produced, sustainably. One of the most significant challenges here is controlling and sustaining the extremely hot plasma required for fusion.
The unlocking of potential
Researchers at General Atomics have overcome this long-standing barrier. In experiments, they claim to have achieved roughly 20% denser stable plasma with approximately 50% better energy confinement quality than the standard high-confinement mode, surpassing the Greenwald limit. Previous attempts to exceed the Greenwald limit, they said, resulted in a significant decrease in confinement quality and even sudden or complete loss of plasma energy.
Another obstacle in tokamak reactors is managing instabilities within the plasma, which can damage internal components of the reactor. The new research not only exceeds the Greenwald limit but also provides clues for potential solutions to control these instabilities. Another challenge in tokamak reactors is maintaining a balance between the temperature at the center of the plasma and the temperatures at the outer edges. While the core needs to be scorching hot (tens of millions of degrees Celsius) to trigger fusion, the edges in contact with the reactor walls need to be kept cold enough to prevent damage. Potential solutions to this challenge are discussed in the research.
