The thermonuclear fusion record: 50 million °C for 6 minutes at the WEST reactor was maintained by French and American scientists

by alex

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Рекорд термоядерного синтеза: 50 млн °C в течение 6 минут на реакторе WEST поддерживали французские и американские ученые

Рекорд термоядерного синтеза: 50 млн °C в течение 6 минут на реакторе WEST поддерживали французские и американские ученые

A new thermonuclear fusion record was recorded by researchers from the US Department of Energy, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the French Commission for Alternative Sources of Energy and Atomic Energy know the WEST tokamak with a tungsten wall.

For 6 minutes, the reactor maintained plasma heated to 50 million °C, consuming 1.15 gigajoules of energy. In this case, 15% more energy was obtained than in previous attempts, and the plasma density was achieved twice as high. To measure plasma parameters and other process characteristics, the researchers used an X-ray detector inside the tokamak. Extremely refractory tungsten is considered one of the most promising materials for industrial thermonuclear fusion.

“The environment using a tungsten wall is much more complex than using carbon [in other tokamaks]. It's just the difference between trying to grab a kitten at home and petting a predatory lion,” says Luis Delgado-Aparicio, the project's lead scientist.

A tokamak is a torus-shaped thermonuclear reactor that uses magnetic fields to hold plasma where thermonuclear fusion reactions occur. During fusion, atoms merge and new ones are formed, which is accompanied by a huge release of energy and temperatures higher than in stars. This reaction is the opposite of nuclear fission, which is used in conventional nuclear reactors.

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The task of industrial thermonuclear fusion is to constantly maintain a stable reaction with the generation of more energy than is consumed. Fusion does not create waste like nuclear fission and releases much more energy, which is why it is considered the “holy grail” of energy. Scientists consider the achievement of a steady-state reaction in an experiment to be an outstanding achievement.

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Рекорд термоядерного синтеза: 50 млн °C в течение 6 минут на реакторе WEST поддерживали французские и американские ученые

Рекорд термоядерного синтеза: 50 млн °C в течение 6 минут на реакторе WEST поддерживали французские и американские ученые

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