NASA Lattice Confinement Fusion [2020]

currently public and private sectors are working hard developing machines capable of energy production via fusion reaction the most notable of these experiments is the international thermal nuclear experimental reactor or ether just a quick recap iter is the most massive project in this field with its construction starting in 2013. the first test run will be in 2025 while the definitive and final test will only happen in 2035. the machine itself will weight 23 000 tons and the total final cost of this endeavor will most likely surpass billion euros achieving sustainable fusion reaction is quite difficult especially with the tokamak category based on electromagnetic confinement electromagnetic confinement is by far the most studied category in the world of fusion but a second one that is often neglected called inertial confinement fusion might be the future nasa may have finally achieved this with a method called lattice confinement fusion [Music] hello everyone subject zero here [Music] nuclear fusion is a process in which two nuclei join to form a new heavier nucleus this process usually yields 10 times more energy than it's needed to start the reaction however the energy needed to start the process is enormous in tokamax such as either the amount of thermal energy input is about 50 megawatts with an expected output of 500 megawatts the process although straightforward to understand requires intricate machines to coordinate the atomic dance the temperature necessary to achieve fusion on earth is 150 million degrees celsius that is 10 times hotter than the sun's core this is necessary to initiate the reaction or to overcome the electromagnetic forces of positively charged particles called the coulomb barrier the idea is to get the atoms fast enough then magnetic confinement is applied to push the atoms as close as possible together to increase the chances of them hitting each other if all goes well the atoms will hit each other with enough power that the strong force overcomes the electromagnetic barrier and the atoms fused together this has been quite a challenge for decades while fusing atoms is quite easy to achieve the real problem is with self-sustaining reactions having a positive energy output from fusion reactions remains to be seen most experiments don't even come close to the break-even point when output energy is at least the same as the input the joint european taurus or jet is by far the most successful experiment to date with a 16 megawatt output to 24 megawatt input the issue with magnetic confinement is that an enormous amount of energy is being diverted three ways to heat the gas accelerating the particles and to freeze the coils and produce superconductivity which in turns generate the enormous magnetic fields to narrow the plasma lattice confinement fusion eliminates basically all of that but what is lattice confinement lattice confinement is the idea of constraining smaller atoms with bigger ones in this case the crystalline layer of a metal is used to hold deuteron atoms just like pouring water into sand for this experiment they used erbium and titanium at a 99.9 percent purity erbium is a rare earth metal mainly found in sweden and it is used in optical amplification media such as lens and lasers for optical fibers it is also used in nuclear technology as control rods for neutral absorption the reason they used erbium for this experiment lies in fuel density where it can hold about 8 times 10 to the 22nd deuteron atoms per centimeter cubed it is also very stable where losses from fuel loading to testing were minimal lastly it showed enhanced nuclear reactions a sample of erbium is pumped with deuterium which is packed with a billion times more fuel than the magnetic confinement of tokamax are able to constrain the ability to pack more atoms in a given volume especially a billion times denser increases the chances of deuterons hitting each other all you need now is a source of energy to excite the atoms and start the reaction in this case they blasted the sample with 2.9 million electron volts of energetic x-rays which causes the dissociation of the atom and this is where the magic happens this dissociation creates the necessary energetic neutrons and protons the neutron collides with a static deuteron giving it enough energy to collide with another deuteron ultimately fusing while fusion is one of the main reactions this is only part of the story the neutron can also be absorbed by the metal causing it to expel an energetic proton going from erbium to tullium this process is called oppenheimer phillips or strip reaction this method is the exact opposite of the magnetic confinement here they rely on the fact that slow-moving deuterons are already as close as they can be to each other with little energy it reduces the chance of atoms simply scattering off one another and increases the likelihood of them tunneling through the electrostatic barrier nevertheless although this method is promising scientists still need to augment the total fusion reaction yield to acceptable power levels which brings us back to metallic hydrogen the future looks promising for inertial confinement fusion or at least enough to provide satellite or small spaceships with electricity the key takeaway here is fuel density one of the biggest problems current fusion technologies have such as teleraters and tokamax like i mentioned before is the enormous amount of energy required to concentrate the plasma at unbelievable temperatures another problem they have is the amount of tritium necessary for the reaction to happen overall it is estimated that a 1000 megawatt fusion power plant would need about 125 kilograms of tritium per year problem is tritium is extremely rare on earth which makes it very expensive infusion reactions deuterium and tritium are the best candidates for the job because of their large cross-section that makes it easier for both atoms to collide lattice confinement eliminates both problems assuming that metallic hydrogen is indeed better stable and all assumptions about it are correct it will be the best fuel by far for fusion initially the amount of metallic hydrogen that we will be able to create is municipal however enough to be used in fusion reactions the concept of lattice confinement could be applied here except that there is no need for a metal lattice after all the hydrogen is its own lattice as the proximity of protons is extreme this in turn would facilitate the fusion reaction nevertheless the next step for nasa is to study other ways to increase power output levels as mentioned on their website they have some techniques in mind that might get the job done they hope to use this discovery in the near future with space propulsion systems such as plasma rockets alright folks that's it we're done here

Channel: Subject Zero Science

Views: 193,953

Rating: 4.9358783 out of 5

Keywords: Subject Zero Science, graphene, nuclear fusion, fusion, science, iter, nuclear, physics, energy, fusion power, fusion energy, education, hydrogen, nuclear fusion reactor, plasma, tritium, physics chapter 3, science channel, physics crash course, fusion power explained, nuclear energy, plasma cutter, NASA

Id: yJTi7cnZtYI

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/CtrlC-CtrlV]

I don't see how this can ever be an efficient process. Coulomb scattering cross section will always be much larger than the fusion cross section, so most of the energy put in by the MeV X-rays is lost to heat. You can probably get some fusion reactions, but I don't see how one can ever get to net energy output.

Also, a criticism of magnetic confinement fusion was the scarcity of tritium, but they completely skip over the fact that magnetic confinement fusion reactors will breed their own tritium. Therefore only a startup inventory is needed.

This really seems like a production by someone who understands just enough to sound convincing, but does not fully understand all the issues.

[u/[deleted]]

Production quality was great. However, so many misleading statements, and with absolutely no analysis as to problems with such an approach. Seems like a catchy title with not much in the way of meaningful substance. What a shame!

[u/verbmegoinghere]

Hey this guy is really good.

I only understand a fraction of what is said on this sub but this guy did really good to explain me fusion

[u/afro_snow_man]

Subject zero is the best!