There are many human and economic resources that certain powers are investing in the development and manufacture of a solution to allow human beings to extract clean energy using nuclear fusion. As a detail, tell you that this technique, despite being terribly complex, the truth is that it has been basic to build everything we know today, not in vain, all elements present in the periodic table heavier than hydrogens are the result of a fusion.
As we say, managing to develop and manufacture that container capable of withstanding the nuclear fusion of two atoms is something terribly complex. Today, many of the most prolific minds on the planet work in this field and, despite the fact that we may not talk about the progress that is being made every day, the truth is that, as the months go by, notable progress has been made on this issue.
Which is nuclear fusion?
Before continuing, remind you that, contrary to the work carried out in nuclear power plants, where they work with nuclear fission, where let's say that from an atom two are obtained taking advantage of all the energy that is given off to supply our homes, in nuclear fusion what is intended is the opposite, that is, to take two elements, remove all their electrons and then, applying a force, achieve that the two remaining protons unite thus creating a much heavier core.
By joining these two atoms a tremendous energy is generated, the same for example that today drives the Sun and that, hopefully, in a certain future we will be able to dominate in order to get it to feed all our cities the electricity they need. As a detail, tell you that, to achieve the fusion of two atoms on Earth, we need to heat their nuclei to the point where they move so fast through the container that contains them that they cannot avoid colliding. The problem is that the need to heat the container that confines them and the fact that, to increase the probability of collisions, we need this container to be very small, is a huge challenge for modern engineering.
At the moment the human being does not have the necessary technology to be able to fuse two atoms
A stellarator is precisely this container that we have been talking about throughout this post, specifically we are talking about a support capable of confining these atoms using a series of strong magnetic fields. The idea of the stellarator is to get the ions to form a kind of exhalation along the lines of the magnetic field since, as long as the lines have a loop shape, the ions will follow this loop.
The downside to this is that, unfortunately, charged ions can change from one line to another, for example after a collision, while moving from the strongest point of the field to the weakest. In the weak point is where they can escape from their magnetic confinement if a jump occurs. To prevent this, what has been achieved is to twist the magnetic field itself so that, once it reaches its weakest point, the ions move back to the area where there is more pressure. To get this work done, Engineers have gifted the stellarator with the most impressive superconducting magnets you can find.
During the tests, results very similar to those expected were achieved
At this point we have to talk about the novelties that the engineers working on the development of the stellarator have just presented. Apparently, in recent months work has been done on testing the different types of plasma confinement, the temperatures they offer and the necessary densities for the magnetic field. At this point, the interesting thing is that the models used offer data very similar to the predictions in terms of plasma density, electron temperature and ion temperature.
Another interesting point achieved has been the optimization in terms of achieving minimize the starting current as much as possible. In this sense, the models used, in the worst case, showed that it had decreased by 3,5 times compared to that produced in the tokamak, a device equivalent in terms of functionality to the stellarator. These results are fundamental for the development of a component that has not yet been installed in the prototype, the diverter, a single piece that must be located in the vacuum chamber where the plasma hits the wall.
Thanks to the results of these tests, we will be able to continue advancing in the development of the stellarator
At this point, and after the successful execution of all the tests, the group of engineers in charge of the development of the stellarator confirms that from now on they will work on coat all the walls of your prototype completely. Once this work is done, we will proceed to test with various magnetic field settings, all the instruments will be tested and all the expected theoretical models will be executed.
Once this work is done, the most difficult part will come, creating a form of cool down the system. For this, a water system will be designed with which the stellarator will be able to reach its maximum power. All pipes and heat exchangers, today, are already in place although they are not connected.