Design work starts on European commercial fusion power station. Nuclear fusion engineers are starting to design a European power station they hope will mimic how the sun works to provide a clean, almost unlimited source of energy on Earth
Design work starts on European commercial fusion power station. Nuclear fusion engineers are starting to design a European power station they hope will mimic how the sun works to provide a clean, almost unlimited source of energy on Earth
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Isn’t this the plot of Spiderman 2?
Fusion’s always 40 years away no matter what year it currently is.
There’s several research reactors still in construction. Sustainable reactions beyond seconds haven’t been reached yet, and even the necessary materials for the interior of the reactor are still matter of research.
What’s different here?
>There has been plenty of experimental work on nuclear fusion, largely with machines known as tokamaks. These use powerful magnets to confine and control hot matter – or plasma – usually in the shape of a doughnut.
A torus. Come on, I know that New Scientist has to dumb down, but really.
Anyway, yet another back of the beermat project to eventually spend a few billion to see if you can actually get back more energy from it than you put in to heat it up and try to keep it stable. Doubtless we will find out eventually – or there is a power cut, the electromagnetic field fails, and the whole superheated mess flies off into space, through the Earth’s crust, or sideways through some populated areas.