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Scientists achieve a 43-second breakthrough that could lead to unlimited clean energy.
Today's nuclear power works by splitting uranium atoms apart to generate electricity. It's clean in terms of carbon emissions, but it also produces radioactive waste from uranium fuel that remains dangerous for thousands of years.
Fusion energy does the reverse by crushing hydrogen atoms together instead of splitting them apart.
This is the same process that powers our Sun, where hydrogen atoms get smashed together under intense heat and pressure, forming helium and releasing massive amounts of energy.
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Scientists have been attempting to recreate this stellar process on Earth for decades, as the payoff would be enormous.
If successful, it could deliver clean, virtually limitless power with no carbon emissions and much less radioactive waste than today’s nuclear plants.
Fusion reactors are still in the experimental stage, but scientists have developed two primary designs.
Most research has focused on tokamaks which are doughnut-shaped reactors that use magnetic coils to contain the superheated plasma needed for fusion.
The other approach is called a stellarator, which is more complex than tokamaks. Stellarators can sustain plasma reactions with less power input and have design features that make controlling the plasma easier.
The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany recently reached the longest plasma duration ever achieved in nuclear fusion. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics managed to sustain a stable plasma reaction for 43 seconds - achieving what's called the 'triple product' performance level required for viable nuclear fusion.
While that's about the time it takes to make your bed, it's a remarkable feat for nuclear physics.
And it wasn't just an achievement from Germany's part.
The fuel injector for Wendelstein 7-X was specially created by scientists at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. European labs including Spain's Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT) and Budapest's HUN-REN Center for Energy Research contributed to developing the fuel pellets.
During those record-breaking 43 seconds, the team heated plasma using microwaves while the fuel injector delivered 90 pellets of frozen hydrogen ions. The microwave heating system used a technique called electron cyclotron resonance, which utilises electromagnetic waves to heat and ionise plasma.
As a result, temperatures reached a scorching 30 million degrees Celsius (54 million degrees Fahrenheit). Success depended on perfectly balancing the heating with precisely timed fuel pulses.
“The new record is a tremendous achievement by the international team. It impressively demonstrates the potential of Wendelstein 7-X,” said Prof. Dr. Thomas Klinger of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.
Each second of sustained fusion reaction brings scientists closer to understanding how to build commercial fusion power plants that could revolutionise global energy production.
Klinger added: “Elevating the triple product to tokamak levels during long plasma pulses marks another important milestone on the way toward a power-plant-capable stellarator.”
