The promise of a clean, unlimited, and sustainable source of energy is getting closer and closer thanks to the latest achievements in the field of nuclear fusion.
Scientists and engineers have set a world record in fusion energy production using the Joint European Torus (JET), one of the world’s largest fusion machines. In an unprecedented experiment, high fusion power was maintained for five seconds, generating an impressive record of 69 megajoules of energy with a minimal amount of fuel.
The search for cleaner and more sustainable energy sources is one of the great challenges currently being faced. Nuclear fusion has long been considered the prime target in the search for a clean energy source, as it would replicate the process that powers the sun and stars. The JET experiment demonstrates that nuclear fusion power generation is feasible on Earth.
JET, a tokamak that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine a doughnut-shaped plasma, has been shown to be capable of reaching the temperature needed to initiate the nuclear fusion process. Using a combination of deuterium and tritium, the scientists raised the machine’s temperature to 150 million degrees Celsius, ten times hotter than the core of the sun. The fusion of these elements generates helium and releases large amounts of energy.
The importance of advances in nuclear fusion
The milestone reached in nuclear fusion energy production is of great importance in the search for a clean and sustainable energy source for the future. It not only demonstrates the ability to generate power with minimal amounts of fuel but also paves the way for future developments in the field of nuclear fusion. These scientific breakthroughs are crucial to projects such as Iter, a fusion research megaproject under construction in France, and DEMO, a machine that is envisioned to be a prototype fusion plant capable of producing larger amounts of energy.
Dr. Fernanda Rimini, JET’s Exploitation Manager, highlighted the importance of these results by noting that “we can create fusion plasmas using the same fuel combination that will be used in future commercial fusion power plants.” This represents a significant technological breakthrough in the development of fusion energy and increases confidence in its future as a clean and sustainable energy source.
Although large-scale commercialization of fusion energy will take time, these scientific breakthroughs represent an important step forward in the management of energy research projects. Nuclear fusion has the potential to transform the world’s energy landscape, offering a clean and unlimited source of energy for humanity. It is a leap towards a sustainable future in which we will be able to guarantee energy supply without contributing to climate change.
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Source: El ´tokamak’ JET establece un récord mundial de producción de energía de fusión
