fusion

Germany has a plan to lead the world in nuclear fusion. And it has committed to doing so in the 2030s

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Germany is very serious about nuclear fusion. The state of Bavaria, the company specialized in the development of type nuclear fusion reactors stellarator Proxima Fusion, the energy company RWE AG and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) have agreed to collaborate in the development and implementation of the first fusion power plant of type stellarator of Europe. And, presumably, the world. Its strategy seeks to bring this facility into operation in the 2030s with the purpose of demonstrating a net energy gain. This simply means that the reactor should be able to produce more energy than it consumes. Alpha, which is what this demonstration fusion reactor will be called, will be built in Garching, very close to the IPP facilities. However, this is not all. And Alpha will be used to test the technological solutions that will later allow the construction of Stellaris, the first commercial plant of stellarator type fusion energy. The latter will be hosted in the town of Gundremmingen. If the organizations involved in this project achieve their goal over the next decade, Germany will consolidate itself as a world power in fusion energy. Germany firmly believes in ‘stellarator’ fusion reactors Experimental nuclear fusion reactors stellarator They represent a very solid alternative to tokamakas ITER either JET. And they are not exactly the result of recent research. In fact, both designs were designed during the 1950s. He stellarator It was designed by the American physicist Lyman Spitzer and served as the foundation on which the plasma physics laboratory at Princeton University (USA) was built. The design tokamakHowever, it was devised by the Soviet physicists Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm and Andrei Dmítrievich Sakharov based on ideas proposed a few years earlier by their colleague Oleg Lavrentiev. Both reactors were designed with the purpose of confining very high temperature plasmaand, curiously, during the 50s and 60s the design stellarator received great support from the scientific community in the West due to its enormous potential. ‘Tokamaks’ require that magnetic fields be generated by coils and induced by the plasma itself However, when Soviet and American scientists published their results and compared them, they realized that tokamak design performance was one or two orders of magnitude better than that of the stellarator. From that moment on, this latter design was largely marginalized. The most obvious difference between one and the other lies in their geometry, but it is enough to investigate a little about both to realize that the reactors stellarator they still have a lot to say. type reactors tokamak They are shaped like a toroid (or donut), and stellarator They have a more complex geometry that resembles a donut twisted on itself. However, the fundamental difference that exists between these two designs is that the reactors tokamak require that the magnetic fields that confine the plasma be generated by coils and induced by the plasma itself, while in reactors stellarator everything is done with coils. There is no current within the plasma. This means, in short, that the latter are more complex and difficult to build. In Europe we have a type fusion reactor stellarator extraordinarily promising: Wendelstein 7-X. It is installed in one of the buildings of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald (Germany), and its construction was completed in 2015. The first tests carried out in this fusion reactor between 2015 and 2018 went as planned, so in November of this last year an important moment arrived in its itinerary: it was necessary to modify it to install a water cooling system that was capable of more effectively evacuating the residual thermal energy from the walls. of the vacuum chamber, as well as a system that would allow the plasma to reach a higher temperature. The work that required these modifications was successfully completed in August 2022. And in February 2023, the Wendelstein 7-X reactor reached an important milestone: it managed to confine and stabilize the plasma for 8 uninterrupted minutes in which it delivered a total energy of 1.3 gigajoules. During the last two years everything learned in the development and the first tests carried out on this machine has been used by Proxima Fusion. In fact, its founders come from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. If Alpha goes well, commercial fusion energy will be a reality before the end of the next decade. This is the true purpose of Proxima Fusion. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Interesting Engineering In Xataka | An alternative to ITER in nuclear fusion is being cooked in France: a commercial ‘stellarator’ reactor

The future of energy lies in fusion, and China aims to light the first light bulb with the power of the Sun in 2030

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When we think of the future energyit is easy for us to think about renewables. Much of Europe has a while running with renewables, China is an expanding power and even some states in the United States They are seeing its benefits. However, the future lies in nuclear power. But not because of fission, but for the fusion. And China has just taken a giant step in the forecasts of its BEST program with a single objective. Replicate the process that powers the Sun. China and the ultimate energy. Fusion and fission are nuclear reactions that release energy from the nucleus of the atom, and That’s where their similarities end.. Briefly, fission consists of breaking the nuclei of heavy atoms such as uranium to release energy. It is the process that we use in current nuclear power plantsand decades ago we managed to make it something stable. Fusion is the reverse process: it joins light atoms to generate energy. It is tremendously unstable and the heat generated is enormous, but the process generates a much higher amount of energy. Imitate that star power It is extremely complex, but we have been trying to replicate it for years for a very simple reason: it is estimated that it will offer almost unlimited energy and long-lasting waste-freesomething against which nuclear fission can’t compete. China is one of the countries that is pushing the development of nuclear fusion plants the most, so much so that it intends to put the first plant into operation a decade before its competitors. EAST. It stands for ‘Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak’, an experimental program that China has been developing since 2006 to test the viability of commercial fusion energy. After setting some records for temperature and operating time, in 2021 achieved continuous plasma operation for 17 minutes in which the core operated at 70 million degrees Celsius. They are five times the sun temperature and, although temperatures of up to 160 million degrees were previously achieved for 20 seconds, the ideal is to maintain a very high temperature for as long as possible. Steps have continued to be taken and researchers recently discovered that the reactor could work at 165% of its maximum theoretical capacity without suffering disruptions. To contextualize, it is as if we have an engine designed to go at 200 km/h, but we discover that we can drive at 330 km/h constantly without it overheating. In short: China is taking steps to control the enormous challenge represented by the magnetic confinement of plasma. BEST. The ‘Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak’, for its part, is the spearhead of its nuclear fusion program. If EAST is the proof of concept, BEST is the demonstration of feasibility. The EAST steps are those that will be replicated in BEST, a reactor built on a larger scale that will operate for a shorter period of time in a sustained manner, but under conditions of greater energy gain. Goal: 2030. China began construction of the BEST in 2023 and hopes to complete it by 2027 to begin testing with plasma. If it goes well, the CFETR reactor will be the one that pours fusion energy into the grid. In a statement published by the state media Xinhuawe see that the intention is to generate electricity by 2030 and start do it commercially by 2035. If the goal is reached, China will be the first country that will be able to commercially emulate the power of the Sun to light the “first nuclear fusion light bulb” in history. Although, of course, the United States and Massachusetts They also say that they will be the first. They are not the only ones. If they reach the goal, it will be a fundamental step in achieving new generation energy, and they want to reach that future a decade before the rest of the countries, or so China suggests. In this race for nuclear fusion, the BEST is expected to begin operating commercially between 2030 and 2035. Meanwhile, in France there is the ITER. With 24,000 million euros in budgetis the most expensive international program in history, only surpassed by the Apollo Programthe International Space Stationhe Manhattan Project or the GPS system. It aims to be very powerful, but has constant delaysa budget that has overflowed and an operational date that has not been fulfilled. In the United States, a private startup is building SPARCmuch smaller than ITER, but more profitable. United Kingdom has the STEPJapan JT-60SA and Russia the T-15MD Hybrid. Talking about dates is complicated, since there were tests that were expected to be obtained in 2025 and were not achieved… and there is talk of between 2040 and 2060 for the commercial viability of this energy “from the stars”, although the calendars have been readjusted. China has turned new generation energy in a matter of stateand we will see if they meet their goal of starting production in 2030. And, although it seems that we have to put the artificial intelligence even in the soup, the enormous energy needs of this technology are encouraging advances in nuclear fusion. The joke that nuclear fusion energy always has 30 years to go may have come to an end. Images | Oak Ridge National LaboratoryNASA In Xataka | Europe is looking for where to put its first nuclear fusion reactor. And Spain is one of the best candidates

The SPARC fusion reactor is the “microchip” of the future for AI

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The “30 years to merger” joke is officially dead in Massachusetts. With the installation of the first high-temperature superconducting magnet in the SPARC reactor, the era of experimentation has given way to the era of manufacturing. With a calendar marking 2027 as the year of the ‘First Plasma’, humanity is just months away from proving that the Sun can be bottled commercially. The rebirth in the desert. The epicenter of this change is the alliance between Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), chip giant Nvidia and industrial powerhouse Siemens at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. As detailed by the agenciesthe three companies have joined forces to create a “digital twin” of SPARC, the demonstration reactor CFS is building outside Boston. This announcement is not just a declaration of intent. As Seeking Alpha reportsCFS has already installed the first of 18 high-temperature superconducting magnets that form the heart of SPARC. According to CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard, in statements to Fortune: “These magnets are powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water.” The paradox of AI. As Siemens CEO Roland Busch warned, on the CES stageAI factories and data centers require constant gigawatts of electricity to operate, but AI is, in turn, the tool that will provide that energy. Check a plasma at 100 million degrees Celsius It is an engineering challenge that the human mind cannot solve alone. As Latitude Media explainsthe collaboration with Nvidia makes it possible to compress “years of manual experimentation into just weeks of virtual optimization.” The Digital “Brain” of Fusion. The key to CFS achieving what no one has been able to do in decades lies in an unprecedented digital infrastructure. The company isn’t just welding steel; He is building the reactor twice: once in the real world and once in the virtual one. To do this, it uses the Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem in industrial design and Nvidia’s Omniverse platform to give life to an exact replica of the SPARC reactor. This system works as a sophisticated flight simulator. Bob Mumgaard, CEO of CFS, details what they use an aerial analogy to explain this technological hierarchy; While the digital twin developed with Nvidia acts as the “virtual plane”, Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence functions as the “co-pilot” that helps navigate the plasma turbulence. This strategy allows you to say “goodbye to guesswork.” As Del Costy states, Siemens executive, “the data doesn’t lie.” The real value of this collaboration is the ability to run thousands of virtual scenarios before moving a single magnet in the physical plant. This technology is what allows engineers to observe in real time what happens inside the magnetic “doughnut” (the tokamak) without having to open the machinery, eliminating the uncertainty that has held back the industry for half a century. The political board. So far, the merger is one of the few issues that enjoys bipartisan support in the United States. However, a new player has shaken the board: Trump Media & Technology Group. According to World Nuclear NewsPresident Donald Trump’s company has merged with TAE Technologies in a $6 billion deal. The goal is to create the first publicly traded fusion energy player to ensure America’s “energy and AI supremacy.” Although CFS and TAE use different technologies – CFS relies on the tokamak and superconducting magnets, while TAE uses particle accelerators and hydrogen and boron fuel – the competition to be the first to inject electricity into the grid is total. CFS also looks askance to Helion, the startup backed by Sam Altman (OpenAI), which you already have a contract to supply power to Microsoft. The horizon. The roadmap presented by CFS, supported by capital from Bill Gates and Mitsubishiseems for the first time tangible: Late 2026: End of SPARC construction in Massachusetts. It will be the time when the “virtual airplane” designed by Nvidia and Siemens fully materializes in the physical world. 2027: The moment of the “First Plasma”. SPARC must turn on its magnetic heart to produce its first plasma and scientifically demonstrate “Q greater than 1”: generating more energy than it consumes. Early 2030s: ARC debuts in Virginia. A 400 megawatt commercial plant capable of supplying 300,000 homes with clean energy literally extracted from hydrogen particles present in water. The end of the “30 years” joke For decades, the scientific community joked that fusion was always 30 years away. But with the backing of Nvidia and Google, the merger has ceased to be a laboratory project and has become a manufacturing industry. “Lego” is complicated, but with instructions from AI and capital from tech giants, the Sun is closer than ever to being bottled up on Earth. Image | CFS Xataka | Russia wants to be the one who turns on the light on the Moon: its plan involves an operational nuclear reactor before 2036

fusion energy no longer has a ceiling

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For four decades, nuclear fusion scientists have lived under the shadow of a figure: the Greenwald limit. Something that, in essence, is the “glass ceiling” of the reactors tokamak type and that supposedly prevents them from producing more energy than they could. But the one known as the China’s ‘artificial sun’ has broken this ceiling completely, and on top of it in a stable way (surpassing the European model). The Greenwald Wall. To understand the achievement, you must first understand the problem. In a fusion reactorthe power you generate depends on the square of the density, this way, The more density there is inside the reactor, the more energy it will produce.. However, in 1989 the physicist Martin Greenwald formulated a rule that has remained unbeaten: there is a maximum density. If this maximum density is exceeded, the plasma inside the reactor becomes unstable. What does this mean? Well, if this line is passed, the edge of the plasma cools down too much due to radiation, the electrical current contracts and the reactor suffers a disruptiona sudden stop that can even damage the reactor structure. Bordering the limit. In this way, nuclear physicists have always been very attentive to this limitsince exceeding it can generate great chaos in a nuclear power plant. But logically what is always sought is to get the most out of all the resources available, which is why they have always been working very close to this limit, but never without exceeding it. Until in the end it has been possible to overcome it and remove this limitation from the ‘speedometers’ of nuclear energy. The study. The researchers They have achieved this fact, as they have reported in their article published in Science Advancewhere they point out that they have managed to achieve stable densities of between 1.3 and 1.65 times the Greenwald limit. It was not by brute force, but by experimental “finesse”. Something that they have been able to achieve within the Chinese Artificial Sun. This means that the reactor has been able to work at 165% of its maximum theoretical capacity without suffering any disruption. It is as if we had discovered that an engine designed to go 200 km/h can travel at 330 km/h constantly and without overheating. How has he achieved it? The key has not been just to “put in more gas”, but to change the way in which the Artificial Sun interacts with its own walls. Unlike other reactors, the Chinese Artificial Sun has tungsten on its walls, which is a metal that withstands heat better and makes the plasma less dirty. In addition to this property of its walls, The researchers used high-power microwave waves to heat and “clean” the plasma just before ignition. This is in addition to the fact that they were able to validate a new theory that says that, under certain conditions, the plasma “organizes itself” to move away from the walls and remain stable, even if the density is extreme. Real energy. What China’s Artificial Sun has shown is that the “density-free” regime is real. This changes the rules of the game for ITER (the large international reactor being built in France) and for the future CFETRthe reactor with which China hopes to begin pouring fusion energy into the electrical grid before 2040. Its importance. With this new milestone, making giant reactors will no longer make sense, since with this new theory we no longer need gigantic machines to obtain the same energy. Furthermore, by operating in this new regime, the risk of plasma damaging the reactor is drastically reduced, since you will not be “playing” with the limit. But the most relevant thing is that it has been seen that the denser the plasma is, the closer we are to “ignition”, the point where the Artificial Sun generates more energy than it consumes. This may mean that we are closer to the longed for infinite energy. Images | Daniele La Rosa Messina POT In Xataka | China has discovered an energy source so massive it potentially lasts 60,000 years. The bad news: it’s thorium

plasma in a nuclear fusion reactor, in color and at 16,000 fps

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Seeing the inside of a nuclear fusion reactor is, for obvious reasons, complicated. We are talking about temperatures of millions of degrees Celsius, hotter than the core of the Sun. However, the British company Tokamak Energy has just given us unprecedented images of what is happening inside its ST40 spherical reactor: a video in full color and at the incredible speed of 16,000 frames per second. An unprecedented ballet of colors. What we are seeing in the video is, in essence, the choreography of the elements within the tokamak. The ST40, like most of these reactors, uses hydrogen isotopes (deuterium in this case) as fuel. When this gas turns into plasma, it emits a characteristic pink light, which dominates the scene. But the interesting part begins when researchers introduce lithium, which glows red. And no, this is not just a visual spectacle. Every color, every bright filament we see in these images, is a gold mine of information that is helping scientists solve one of the biggest challenges on the long road to commercial fusion energy: how to tame plasma so that it does not degrade reactor materials. What exactly are we seeing? In the images, we see how small granules of lithium are injected into the reactor chamber. Upon entering the outer, colder areas of the plasma, the neutral lithium is excited and emits an intense crimson red light. As they penetrate the hottest and densest regions, lithium atoms lose an electron, become ionized (becoming lithium ions), and begin to glow greenish. Once ionized, lithium no longer moves freely. It is forced to follow the invisible, but very powerful magnetic field lines that confine the plasma. Those green filaments that we see dancing in the video are, literally, the lithium drawing the magnetic cage of the reactor. What is all this for? The lithium acts as a protective shield for the reactor. Recording what happens in color is not easy, but it helps identify whether the impurities that Totakak Energy is introducing into the reactor radiate in the expected place. And if the lithium powders penetrate to the core of the plasma. This experiment is part of research into a mode of operation called the “X-point radiator” (XPR) that uses elements such as lithium so that the edge of the plasma radiates and loses a large amount of heat before touching the reactor walls. It is a protective “atmosphere” that cools the plasma just at the last moment, reducing component wear without sacrificing core performance. The advancement of Tokamak Energy. This approach is the centerpiece of the Dell ST40 upgrade program, which has received funding from the US and UK energy departments. The goal is to coat all the components that face the plasma with lithium, a technique that has already been demonstrated in other laboratories, such as Princeton, to improve plasma performance. This type of visual diagnostics complement the incredibly complex systems that are being installed in reactors such as the JT-60SA in Japan, the most advanced tokamak in the world currentlywhich uses lasers to measure plasma temperature and density indirectly. A global career. While colossal and institutional projects such as ITER They mark a long-term pathwhich plans its first deuterium-tritium experiments by 2039, more agile companies like Tokamak Energy are exploring new designs and technologies, such as spherical tokamaks and high-temperature superconducting magnets, to accelerate the arrival of commercial fusion. The closure of the historic JET reactor in the United Kingdom, who said goodbye breaking an energy recordmarked the end of an era, but its legacy is the foundation on which all these new advances are built. This new window into the heart of plasma is not only visually impressive. It is a small step that brings us a little closer to the goal of replicating the energy of stars on Earth. Nuclear fusion just got a lot more colorful, and that’s great news. Image | Tokamak Energy In Xataka | While the West still waits for fusion energy, China has found a shortcut

The largest nuclear fusion project on the planet has survived the setbacks. This is the date on which Iter should be ready

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2024 was a difficult year for ITER (International Thermonuclear Experctor reactor). This experimental reactor of nuclear fusion It is being built in the French town of Cadarache by an international consortium Led by the European Union. Although it was conceived in 2006 and the project was officially launched in 2007, the beginning of the assembly of this titanic machine did not start until 2020. The initial itinerary Proposed by Eurofusion, which is the institution that is responsible for promoting and supporting the scientific research necessary to bring to fruition the European Nuclear Fusion Plan, established that in 2025 the assembly of this machine would end. However, that same year another crucial milestone would arrive: the first tests with plasma would start. Three years later, in 2028, Iter engineers would begin the low power with hydrogen and helium, and in 2032 the first high -power experiments would arrive with these two gases. Finally, in 2035, Iter would be able to undertake high power tests with deuterium and tritium. And in 2040 this experimental reactor would demonstrate the energy profitability of nuclear fusion. Finally this will not happen like this. In 2022 the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) identified several irregularities of a strictly technical nature in Vacuum Chamber sectorswhich caused the Iter organization to react as it should do so: constituting a working group to address the complementary requests of the ASN and advance with the reactor assembly Tokamak. Iter’s technical challenges are unpublished Assembling a machine as complex as it is it is not easy. The vacuum chamber weighs 8,000 tons, is made of stainless steel and boron and must remain hermetically sealed. Its assembly has forced engineers to deal with extraordinarily strict local tolerances of 0.1%, and, in addition, the camera has a very complicated shape and uses plates with thicknesses up to 60 mm. To solve the assembly the technicians have had to resort to state -of -the -art technologies, such as the Electron Beam Weldingwhich is welding using an electron beam, or The design of AI models specifically conceived to identify defects in the welds of the camera. The Covid-19 Pandemia that raised very crudely during the 2020s and 2021, and, on the other hand, the technical challenges derived from the completely unpublished nature of much of the components that need to be tuning so that Iter arrives in fruition have caused that The main milestones of this project are delayed. Nevertheless, The current updated itinerary proposes several important dates that interest us know. In 2039 Iter will be able to undertake high power tests with deuterium and tritium In 2034 the first experiments will be carried out in the reactor; In 2036 the magnetic system responsible for confinement of plasma to maximum power will be tested; And finally, in 2039 Iter will be able to undertake high power tests with deuterium and tritium. Initially this last milestone was going to arrive in 2035. Whatever it is during the last year the Iter assembly has advanced at a good pace. In the cover image of this article we can see two of the titanic sectors of the vacuum chamber, although, in my opinion, one of The milestones that this project has achieved This year It was consolidated in May. The superconductor magnets placed on the outside of the vacuum chamber of this nuclear fusion reactor have the responsibility of generating the magnetic field necessary to confine plasma inside. They are also responsible for controlling and stabilizing it. These magnets weigh 10,000 tons and are manufactured in an alloy of niobio and tin, or niobio and titanium, which acquires the superconductivity when cools with a supercritical helium until reaching a temperature of -269 ºC. This requirement justifies the need to put a powerful cooling system like the one that has devised Europe for Iter. In the construction of this experimental nuclear fusion reactor, the US, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom, but the cryogenization plant have been commissioned by Fusion for Energy (F4E), the organization of the European Union that coordinates the contribution of Europe to the development of Iter, the French company Air Liquide and technical integrated technicians in the Iter structure. Superconductor magnets acquire superconductivity when they reach a temperature of -269 ºC This extreme refrigeration installation will be responsible for supplying liquid helium to 4.5 Kelvin (-269 ° C) to superconductor magnets and criobombs, and also gaseous helium at 80 Kelvin (-193 ºC) to thermal shields. Creobombs are empty ultraalt devices that are responsible for eliminating gases inside the vacuum chamber. To do it They must work at an extremely low temperature. And, on the other hand, the thermal shields are responsible for protecting some critical elements of the reactor, such as superconductor magnets, the heat that emits the confined plasma inside the vacuum chamber. Iter’s cryogenic plant has an area similar to that of a football field (just over 7,100 m²) and contains several 26 -meter high storage tanks. These figures help us intuit how enormous this critical installation is. As we have just verified, without it the nuclear fusion would be absolutely impossible. This Grigory Kouzmenko statementF4E manager, invites us to tie Iter’s future with a reasonable optimism: “We have entered the most exciting phase of the project, in which all the efforts of previous years finally are specified and we can benefit from the collaboration based on the confidence between all the parties.” Image | Fusion for Energy More information | ITER In Xataka | From today Spain has the key to nuclear fusion: Granada’s particle accelerator is already a reality

Europe and Japan advance unstoppable towards nuclear fusion. His last achievement reminds us why we don’t have it yet

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The experimental reactor of nuclear fusion JT-60SA resides in Naka, a small city not very far from Tokyo (Japan). Its construction began in January 2013, but did not do it from scratch; He did it taking as a starting point the JT-60 reactor, his precursor, a machine that came into operation in 1985 and that for more than three decades has reached very important milestones in the field of merger energy. The JT-60SA assembly ended at the beginning of 2020, and since the end of 2023 it is ready to start The first tests with plasma. This machine is a device Tokamak that like jet and The future iter It resorts to the magnetic confinement of the ionized plasma that contains the deuterium and tritium nuclei to trigger nuclear fusion reactions. Whatever this machine is titanic. Colossal. In fact, it has a height of 15.4 meters and a diameter of 13.7 meters. However, the most shocking are the “specifications” that allow us to train an idea about their performance. And it is able to confine a plasma with a volume of 130 m³, as well as to generate a 2,25 teslas toroidal magnetic field and hold a current inside the plasma of 5.5 mA (5.5 million amps). These figures are shocking, and presumably when Iter is ready to start the first tests with plasma their figures will be even more impressive. Of course, during the next months already measure that the reactor JT60-SA deliver its first results we will develop with great detail. JT-60SA already has one of the most advanced diagnostic systems that exist On April 22, the latest components needed by Japanese and European engineers who work in the reactor to assemble the Thomson dispersion diagnostic system arrived at the JT-60SA facilities. Every time the researchers operating this very complex machine carry out an experiment with it need to know with the maximum possible precision the temperature and density of the plasma electrons. The components of the Thomson Dispersion Measurement Team have been designed and manufactured in Italy, Romania and Japan The main problem they face is that it is not possible to obtain this data taking direct measures. In order for the merger of the deuterium and tritium nuclei to take place, it is necessary that the plasma that contains them a temperature of At least 150 million degrees Celsiusand any sensor that contacts him at this temperature will not survive. This is the reason why the engineers of the JT-60SA reactor have been forced to set up an extraordinarily sophisticated diagnostic system. The components of the Thomson dispersion measurement team have been designed and manufactured in Italy, Romania and Japan. Broadly speaking, this ingenuity manages to measure the temperature and density of plasma electrons analyzing the light that emits with a high -power laser beam dispersed, precisely, by the plasma electrons themselves. Somehow the interaction between the laser and plasma is what allows engineers indirectly calculating temperature and density. The JT-60SA reactor will have two diagnostic systems of Thomson’s dispersion. The nucleus has been developed in Japan, and the edge of the plasma has been devised in Europe. Both are currently being installed, and, if everything goes well, this machine will have in a few months one of the diagnostic and measurement equipment more advanced that exist. The nuclear fusion no longer raises any challenge from the point of view of fundamental physics. If we still have no commercial fusion energy reactors, it is due to the fact that this technology still requires solving several challenges in the field of engineering. The tuning of this diagnostic system was one of them. Image | QST More information | Eurofusion In Xataka | The Jet reactor has successfully completed its final tests with deuterium and tritium. It is a crucial milestone for nuclear fusion

The good news is that there is a material that works well on the walls of fusion reactors. The bad: it is lithium

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We know how the sun works. Another thing is to imitate it. If we got Build a nuclear fusion reactorwe would have clean, safe and practically unlimited energy. But doing so involves incredibly complex engineering challenges. The wall problem. One of the more colossal challenges In nuclear fusion is to build a container that supports a hottest plasma than the sun’s core. For years, scientists have been experiencing with various materials, from graphite to high resistance metals such as tungsten. A recent researchthe result of an international collaboration of nine institutions, confirms that we have a star candidate that works spectacularly well for the wall of the reactors: lithium. A self -refrasinal shield. To understand why lithium is so attractive, you must first visualize the hell that is unleashed inside a tokamak, the most common fusion reactor design. A hydrogen gas, mainly its deuterium and tritium isotopesmore than 100 million degrees Celsius is heated to become a plasma. Magnetic fields potently confine it so that it does not touch anything, but it is impossible to prevent some particles from escaping and violently shocking against the interior walls of the reactor. This is where lithium shines because it can be used in a liquid state. Instead of eroding and degrading with each impact, it flows and heals himself instantly. This self -referential liquid layer would protect the solid components behind. Moreover, if the reactor walls are hot enough, the lithium can form a steam shield that absorbs much of the impact before it reaches the solid surface. Goodbye to graphite? Research shows that lithium is not only a passive shield, but an active plasma conditioner. Instead of reflecting the fuel particles that escape, cooling the edge of plasma and destabilizing it, lithium absorbs them. This helps keep heat where it has to be and, therefore, to stabilize the fusion reaction and improve the confinement of plasma. According to researchers, lithium is a promising candidate to replace graphite, which has a much higher erosion rate. Applied in tungsten walls, it allows to operate the fusion to greater power densities, opening the door to more compact and efficient reactors. Two ways to apply it. The researchers tested, on the one hand, to cover the lithium walls before lighting the plasma and, on the other, to inject lithium powder directly on the plasma during the reactor operation. The injection was much more effective when creating a uniform and stable temperature profile, one of the sacred conditions for commercial fusion. All tests were carried out at the Tokamak Diii-D of General Atomics with financing from the United States Department of Energy. The authors of the study, published in the Materials and Energy nuclear magazine, are researchers of the Princeton plasma physics laboratory and his collaborators. Bad news. In addition to exercising even more pressure on the already tensioning lithium market (Although it does not scarce, it is not extracted to the rhythm that grows its demand), there is a more alarming problem. The lithium is too much Well at work. Catch the tritium with a very high efficiency, preventing it from returning to plasma to be used as fuel. If the tritio is stuck to the walls, the reactor ends up running out of fuel and the cycle breaks. The accumulation of radioactive tritium in cold areas and difficult to access the reactor also greatly complicates its maintenance and is a safety risk. To top it off, the retention is more significant if the lithium is injected with the reactor in operation, the most efficient application method. A possible solution. The key is that these experiments were carried out with lithium in solid state, at temperatures below its melting point. In a real reactor, with liquid lithium, The solution could be a “dialysis” system: Instead of bathing the walls by a lithium river and leaving it there, it would be continuously extracted from the reactor, taken to a processing plant to separate the tritium trapped, and pumped back, clean and ready to continue working. The reactor design would have to adapt to this new proposal. It would be necessary to avoid the cold areas where lithium and tritio could accumulate and stay stagnant, keep the walls at higher and more controlled temperatures, and include the circuit to extract, processes and continuously introduce lithium. A material that solves multiple problems in our mission of simulating the sun, but in return introduces new and also complex. Image | General Atomics In Xataka | There is an alternative to nuclear fusion. It is already underway and is extraordinarily promising

We have detected the greatest fusion of black holes seen to date. It is a problem for our theoretical models

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One of the enigmas that most intrigue astronomers is that of Black holes of intermediate size, those black holes halfway between the holes of stellar mass and the supermassions such as the one that dominates in the center of our galaxy. These are black holes with masses between 100 times that of our sun and those that multiply this star mass by millions. GW231123. A group of Ligo-Virgo-Kagra (LVK) collaboration researchers (LVK) has announced The detection of the greatest clash between two black holes registered to date. The discovery has occurred thanks to the gravitational waves generated by the impact, whose signal has been called GW231123 by those who detected it. November 2023. The name of the signal refers to the date on which it was observed, on November 23, 2023. The study of the detected waves led those responsible for the new study to estimate that the resulting black hole had a dough some 225 times higher than that of our sun. Until now the most massive had been “alone” 140 solar masses. It was in 2021, the GW190521 signal. Estimates indicate that the 2023 signal was the result of the collision between a black hole of 100 solar masses with one of 140 solar masses. That is, only one of the black holes was already as massive as that of the fruit of the largest shock detected so far. From this event not only highlights its magnitude, but also the fact that the speed of rotation of black holes was surprisingly high. A new enigma in heaven. All this planet an important unknown for the team. As they explain, the holes of such mass cannot be formed from the death of a star, at least based on what contemporary physical models say. The only way we know can be formed is through the fusion of smaller black holes. LVK. In 2015, the Ligo experiment made history detecting for the first time the clash of two black holes through the expansion of gravitational waves associated with such a violent event. This pioneering experiment has been company in Europe and Kagra for years (Kamioka gravitational wave detector) In Japan. Together they have already detected more than 300 clashes between black holes. The details of the study They have been presented In the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR24) and 16th Conference Edoardo Amaldi on gravitational waves, a joint conference held this week in Glasgow, Scotland. Not so easy to observe. The detection of GW231123 “pushed the limits of both gravitational wave detection technology and current theoretical models,” says the responsible team. Analyzing these types of events through gravitational waves is not easy, but knowing more about them can help us unravel some key mysteries of the cosmos. “Black holes seem to turn very quickly, almost to the limit of what is allowed by Einstein’s theory of relativity,” explained in a press release Charlie today, co -author of the study. “This makes the signal difficult to model and interpret. It is an excellent case study to push the development of our theoretical tools.” Looking for the midpoint. Theoretical tools that perhaps help us reveal the secrets of the elusive black sized black holes. Today we do not know very well how these holes are formed whose mere existence implies the certainty that we still do not know about our universe. In Xataka | What happens if you fall into a black hole, explained in a simple way in an overwhelming NASA simulation Image | POT

The problems of nuclear fusion are falling behind each other. Optimism cornering denialism

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The challenges raised by the nuclear fusion intimidate. And it is to replicate on our planet and small scale the same reactions that take place in The interior of the stars It is a titanic challenge. Even so, The human being has already traveled A very important part of this path. There is a belief that defends that in the field of nuclear fusion we have barely advanced since World War II, but, as we will see in this article, it is not so. There is much to do, but we have advanced a lot. In order for electric power plants equipped with fusion reactors to be viable, it is necessary to solve problems that are still dealing with engineers. And it is that the challenges posed by nuclear fusion right now reside in the field of engineering, and not in that of basic science. In fact, Spain will actively participate In the search for the solution to one of these problems thanks to IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion materials irradicion facility demo-eraned neutron source), The installation that is under construction (Granada). Its purpose in broad strokes will be to develop a source capable of producing high energy neutrons with the intensity and volume of irradiation necessary to test candidate materials to be used in future fusion energy plants. This is one of the pending challenges, but many others have already been left behind thanks to the great work that scientists have carried out in experimental reactors, such as the already “retiree” JET (Joint European Torus), which is housed in Oxford (England). Let’s trust the reactor JT-60SA of Naka (Japan), and, above all, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experctor reactor), are up to expectations. Eurofusion and the University of Texas have made two new relevant contributions We can imagine in an intuitive way a nuclear fusion reactor as a pressure cooker in which two essential ingredients are cooked: deuterium and trity. To ensure that the nuclei of these two hydrogen isotopes merge and release the neutron that will ultimately allow us to obtain a large amount of energy it is necessary to confine them in an extremely hot plasma. In fact, so that this process takes place, a temperature of at least 150 million degrees Celsius must reach. Scientists know how to do it, so submitting the deuterium and tritium nuclei at the pressure and temperature to get me to merge is no longer a problem. What still represents a challenge is to achieve Keep turbulence under control. Otherwise, the plasma will be destabilized, its density in the critical regions will be affected and the support of the fusion reaction over time will not be possible. The mechanisms that govern this process are very complex, but little by little physicists and engineers who work in fusion energy are getting them better. The QCE (‘Quasi-Continuous exhaust’) regime is characterized by eliminating periodic instabilities that occur on the edge of plasma In broad strokes what they intend is to minimize turbulence so that the loss of plasma energy is minimal. Two of the tools that these technicians have are the artificial intelligence (AI), which is playing a very important role in understanding the mechanisms that govern plasma behavior, and Rebco superconductor magnets. In fact, The sparc fusion reactor that is building the American company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) uses them. Precisely Eurofusionthe European organization that is responsible for promoting and supporting the scientific research necessary to bring to fruition The European Nuclear Fusion Planhas recently made an important contribution in this field. And it has shown that in the reactors Tokamaklike Jet or Iter, it is possible to use an operation mode known as Qce (Quasi-counts exhaust) that is characterized by eliminating periodic instabilities that occur at the edge of plasma, and, at the same time, it supports high density in this region of gas and preserves a very high level of energy. Gradually the confinement and stabilization of plasma are no longer a problem. The other recent contribution in which I propose that we investigate it briefly has been carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Texas and the National Laboratory of Los Alamos, both in the US. In the article they have published in Physical Review Letters These scientists propose the creation of a magnetic confinement system without leaks ten times faster, according to their calculations, than the standard method without sacrificing a precision apex. This innovation is important because it helps to resolve the containment of high energy particles within the reactor, and, therefore, to avoid the loss of temperature and density in the critical regions of plasma. Yes, as I mentioned a few lines above, much remains to be done in the field of nuclear fusion, but definitely every day we are one step closer to commercial fusion energy. Image | Fusion for Energy More information | Eurofusion | Texas University In Xataka | Iter has faced one of the great challenges of nuclear fusion: prevent plasma from 150 million ºC to destroy the reactor

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