Inside The World's Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor

in an otherwise unremarkable looking cluster of industrial buildings somewhere in the southeast of france a team of engineers is attempting to tackle one of science's most intractable problems how to summon the power of a star if they pull it off they'll solve mankind's greatest existential problems at a stroke radically reducing harmful pollution and tackling runaway climate change still that's a big if so join us today as we take a high energy jaunt inside the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor last summer a critical milestone was reached on a science project so vast in scope it was initiated back in 1985 because in july 2020 technical construction finally began at the so-called eta or international thermonuclear experimental reactor situated just outside the sleepy 10th century commune of saint paul de geronz eta is the most expensive and complex engineering project ever undertaken by humanity its core apparatus alone weighs as much as three eiffel towers and is expected to cost a cool 25 billion dollars although cynical estimates put the real figure as high as 65 billion so what actually is eta a global multidisciplinary team is attempting to build the biggest most advanced nuclear fusion reactor the world has ever seen experts have argued for several decades now that nuclear fusion if harnessed properly could provide mankind with a functionally limitless supply of clean safe energy with none of the belching hydrocarbon fumes or stubbornly indestructible radioactive waste generated by other less efficient means of power generation so how does nuclear fusion work conventional nuclear power plants rely on the process known as nuclear fission in a fission reactor stray neutrons slam into larger atoms typically uranium or plutonium causing them to split this in turn releases energy and even more neutrons which go on to split still more atoms causing that dramatic chain reaction we're all familiar with from disaster movies and terrifying old-school footage of ginormous bombs going off in a regular nuclear power plant the heat generated by that runaway reaction boils water which generates steam that in turn drives turbines in order to create electricity fusion even though the word sounds inconveniently similar to fission is a different process altogether in a fusion reactor two or more lighter elements typically isotopes of hydrogen are smooshed together to form a larger element usually helium this is exactly the same chemical reaction taking place right now in the heart of every star fusion is capable of producing four times as much energy as fission not to mention many millions of times the energy generated by grubby old-fashioned fossil fuels you might reasonably ask at this point why every nuclear power station isn't already fusion based well for fusion to take place three very difficult conditions need to be met first the temperature in the reactor core needs raising to around 150 million degrees celsius before fusion can even theoretically take place that's quite an energy-intensive process in itself secondly the so-called plasma in which this reaction occurs needs to be of sufficient density to make fusion a likelihood and third this plasma needs to be held in confinement for long enough for the power generator to be usefully harnessed to this end eta engineers are presently assembling a gigantic structure known as a tokamak this contraption was first proposed by soviet nuclear physicist igor golovin back in 1957. tokamak which since you ask is a russian acronym meaning toroidal chamber with magnetic coils is essentially a vast steel donut where ultra strong magnets conspire to create sufficient heat and pressure in a vacuum to turn gaseous hydrogen fuel into a plasma the tokamak at eta is by far the largest ever constructed each one of its 18 d-shaped toroidal field coils huge magnets in essence weigh 310 tons or about the same as a fully latent jumbo jet that's before we get to its six colloidal magnets and this colossal central solenoid that's theoretically strong enough to lift up an aircraft carrier all this in a tokamak chamber that's twice the size and 10 times the internal volume of anything previously attempted to keep the largest superconducting magnet system ever running through a hundred thousand kilometers of niobium-10 superconducting wires the world's largest helium refrigeration unit is being manufactured at the same time to put all that in perspective when it's finished the eater facility will be home to both one of the hottest places in the universe 150 million degrees celsius in the reactor chamber and one of the coldest places in the universe at minus 269 degrees c or 4 kelvins in the coolant system as if summoning the power of a literal star wasn't tricky enough eta also happens to be a complex collaborative effort between some 35 nations each assembling their own parts to be assembled on site as you might expect this presents some tricky logistical challenges certain individual components among the estimated 10 million parts that will go into eta are being shipped from as far away as south korea some bits weigh 900 tons and others are four stories high a hundred and four kilometer road from ita's nearest mediterranean port at fosome marseille has been specially upgraded at eye watering cost this multinational endeavor which takes input from the european union united states russia china and india among others promises stakeholders in exchange for their support priceless experimental data and access to any intellectual property generated as a consequence of the project when eta finally manages to assemble this enormous fiendishly complex jigsaw puzzle the project has five concrete aims the first is to produce 500 megawatts of power from a fusion reaction so far the record is just 16 megawatts held by another smaller tokamak known as jet in column england which achieved this benchmark back in the 1990s however the jet team required 24 megawatts of heating power to even manage this in essence a net loss of 8 megawatts at eta the plan is to use associated techniques to raise the temperature inside the reactor to 150 million degrees c and hope its plasma achieves a sustainable burn from a mere 50 megawatts of input heating power if they pull that off it will be the first time fusion has ever generated more power than was put in by a healthy factor of 10. the second target for eta is to demonstrate feasibility for the myriad associated technologies needed to support a fusion reactor that means heating the tokamak's elaborate diagnostic systems its vast cryogenic apparatus for keeping the magnets cool and everyday boring stuff like maintenance and control systems eta's third aim is attaining the holy grail of so-called burning plasma that is a fusion reaction which generates its own heat making it sustainable for longer periods than is currently possible the fourth target is arguably the most important to prove the feasibility of so-called tritium breeding it was established long ago that the most likely fuel for dependable fusion reactions is a cocktail of deuterium and tritium deuterium is as luck would have it super abundant occurring naturally in seawater tritium on the other hand is extraordinarily scarce with only around 3.5 kilograms at any one time available in nature nowhere near enough to fuel that hoped for fusion energy boom as such clever eter engineers have lined their reactor wall with a nifty breeding blanket comprising lithium-based materials in order to hopefully harvest and generate tritium as a byproduct of the fusion reaction itself the fifth and final target for eta is of course to prove the safety of a fusion device which is a must in a world of vocal nuclear energy skeptics after many years of delays and changes in senior personnel the eta project is finally in the construction stage and expects to fire up its first plasma in december of 2025. if all goes to plan three processes will work in concert to raise the core temperature to the magic 150 million degrees c necessary for fusion to occur these are ohmic heating created by smart manipulation of those mighty magnetic fields neutral beam injection of high velocity charge deuterium and high frequency electromagnetic waves a bit like your microwave at home and while fusion reactions in a tokamak have been achieved elsewhere eta will be the first that generates more energy than it put in it should be noted that even if successful eta will never be connected to the power grid per se it's just a vast multi-decade proof of concept to see if it can be done this has led some critics to decry the project as an overpriced boondoggle arguing investment would be better funneled into rival projects such as the so-called stellarator but that's another story for now the brightest minds in nuclear physics are doing their best to summon a star and we say more power to them what do you think is nuclear fusion mankind's only safe route to a sustainable future or is the team at eta meddling with forces beyond our control let us know in the comments and don't forget to hit subscribe for more high energy tech content

Channel: Tech Vision

Views: 879,209

Keywords: nuclear fusion, nuclear reactor, iter, nuclear fusion reactor, nuclear energy, renewable energy, nuclear power plants, non-renewable energy, international nuclear fusion, power plant, energy, electricity, environment, nuclear power, international nuclear fusion research, nuclear

Id: ekub_xEiUww

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2021