It is not the first time in ActualidadGadget We talk about a topic as important to human beings as nuclear fusion. Before continuing, remind you that nuclear fusion is something that we still do not have access to since, contrary to what we are used to, what our nuclear power plants do today is nuclear fission, that is, instead of joining two atoms (fusion) what they do is separate one by two (fission).
Once we have this more or less clear, although in the explanation we have left many nuances to touch to truly understand the differences between one idea and the other, today I want us to talk about the latest document referring to this matter that has just been published by a group of engineers and researchers from MIT, which they ensure thanks to their discovery can greatly shorten development times so that the control of nuclear fusion definitely becomes a reality.
A group of MIT engineers believe they have found the way to cut the time required for the development of nuclear fusion by half
So that you understand how the issue of nuclear fusion is today, tell you that today there are three possible ways to ensure that human beings can enjoy all the energy benefits that nuclear fusion promises. These three paths pass through the ITER, IFMIF DONES or DEMO projects, the same whose main research teams assure that, at least until half a century, they will not finish their work, so we speak, neither more nor less, of a wait that could last more than 30 years.
Thanks precisely to a discovery made by MIT, it seems that these deadlines could be cut in half. As a detail, let me know that this study has been developed jointly with researchers from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a private company specialized in nuclear fusion. At work we are presented with a new superconductor that can be used in the manufacture of a new generation of much more powerful and compact magnets to those currently used by the few nuclear fusion reactors that have been built or, failing that, are under construction.
Thanks to a new superconductor, we will be able to manufacture more compact and powerful magnets with which to build a reactor up to 65 times smaller than the current ones.
Regarding the role of magnets in nuclear fusion, tell you that they play a very important role since are responsible for confining the plasma, a substance that is nothing other than a gas that can reach a temperature close to two hundred million degrees Celsius. This gas is responsible for fusing the deuterium and tritium nuclei, thus generating a single helium nucleus and a high-energy neutron.
Another of the great functions that magnets have in this type of reactors is to generate sufficient pressure between the deuterium and tritium nuclei so that, with the help of the high temperature of the plasma, both are fused. At this point, the scientists involved in the development of this project ensure that the creation of this superconductor will allow them to create more compact and powerful magnets, which would translate into getting the size of the reactor was reduced by about 65 times.
Nuclear fusion should solve all the major energy problems that humans demand today
To test the feasibility of the project, the engineers have already set to work on the construction of a new fusion reactor, which has been baptized with the name of SPARC and that, according to the first sketches, as indicated, it will be 65 times smaller than ITER.
A point in favor of the use of this new generation of magnets is that, being more powerful, the plasma cores can be subjected to a much higher pressure, which in turn means that it would not be necessary for the plasma to have to reach such an extreme temperature. In these very specific conditions, the energy efficiency should be higher, that is, for each unit of energy necessary to carry out the fusion we would obtain two units of usable resulting energy.