Solar Winds & Nuclear Fusion

in science •  2 years ago 

"At the orbit of the earth the average solar wind consists of a strongly ionized gas having a proton and electron density of about 3 - 10 particles per cubic centimeter, with an average flow velocity of approximately 400 km/s. Occasionally stream structures are detected in the steady solar wind, which have peak velocities which tend toward a mean of about 750 km/s near the earth."
https://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/spartan/the_solar_wind.html

"A fusion power plant would produce abundant energy using only hydrogen from water as fuel, and producing helium as waste, without the risk of meltdowns or radiation. This is in contrast with nuclear fission, the type of reaction in contemporary nuclear power plants, which splits the nuclei of heavy elements like uranium to produce energy.

While fusion reactions take place in the Sun, and uncontrolled fusion takes place in thermonuclear weapon explosions, controlling a sustained fusion reaction for generating power has eluded nuclear engineers for decades."
https://news.yahoo.com/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-ignition-finally-081200302.html

"Nuclear fusion reactions involve "fusing" atoms of hydrogen together instead of splitting large atoms apart, generating vast amounts of energy in the process."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1738875/rolls-royce-boss-uk-nuclear-fusion-tokamak-energy-low-cost-limitless

"A fusion experiment at the world’s biggest laser facility released 1.3 million joules of energy, coming close to a break-even point known as ignition, where fusion begins to release more energy than required to detonate it. Reaching ignition would strengthen hopes that fusion could one day serve as a clean, plentiful energy source, a goal that scientists have struggled to make progress toward (SN: 2/8/18).

By pummeling a tiny capsule with lasers at the National Ignition Facility, or NIF, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, scientists triggered fusion reactions that churned out more than 10 quadrillion watts of power over 100 trillionths of a second."
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/laser-nuclear-fusion-experiment-energy

"A 3-million-joule burst emerged from a peppercorn-sized capsule of fuel when it was heated with a 2-million-joule laser pulse. Details of the long-awaited achievement, which mimics how the sun makes energy, were revealed in a news conference December 13 by U.S. Department of Energy officials."

"But this latest fusion burst still didn’t produce enough energy to run the laser power supplies and other systems of the NIF experiment."
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-energy

"“This is one igniting capsule, one time. And to realize commercial fusion energy, you have to do many things. You have to be able to produce many, many fusion ignition events per minute,” Kim Budil, the director of the Lawrence Livermore Lab, said on Tuesday."
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/nuclear-fusion-passes-major-milestone-net-energy.html

"The goal is to unleash a cascade of particles that leads to more fusion and more particles, thus creating a sustained fusion reaction"
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02338-4

"But with new target designs and laser pulse shapes, along with better tools to monitor the miniature explosions, NIF researchers believe they are close to an important intermediate milestone known as "burning plasma": a fusion burn sustained by the heat of the reaction itself rather than the input of laser energy.

Self-heating is key to burning up all the fuel and getting runaway energy gain."
https://www.science.org/content/article/laser-fusion-reactor-approaches-burning-plasma-milestone

"The ultimate goal, still years away, is to generate power the way the sun generates heat, by pushing hydrogen atoms so close together that they combine into helium, which releases torrents of energy."

"Nuclear fusion presses together two types of hydrogen found in water molecules. When they fuse, "a small amount [milligrams] of fuel produces enormous amounts of energy and it's also very 'clean,' in that it produces no radioactive waste," said Carolyn Kuranz, a University of Michigan experimental plasma physicist who wasn't part of the research.

"It's basically limitless clean energy that can be deployed anywhere."

Researchers around the world have been working on the technology for decades, trying different approaches. Thirty-five countries are collaborating on a project in southern France called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor that uses enormous magnets to control the superheated plasma. That is expected to begin operating in 2026"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/fusion-milestone-1.6329404

"A team from LLNL has reportedly managed to achieve fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), according to a statement (opens in new tab) published Tuesday (Dec. 13). "On Dec. 5, a team at LLNL's National Ignition Facility (NIF) conducted the first controlled fusion experiment in history to reach this milestone, also known as scientific energy breakeven, meaning it produced more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it," the statement reads."
https://www.space.com/nuclear-fusion-breaktrough

"a “Plasma Compression Fusion Device” in 2019, it was either a giant breakthrough – or mad science. According to the patent application, the miniature device could contain and sustain fusion reactions capable of generating power in the gigawatt (1 billion watts) to terawatt (1 trillion watts) range or more. A large coal plant or mid-size nuclear powered reactor by comparison produces energy in the 1–2 gigawatt range. The revolutionary invention by Dr. Pais, if real, would produce near unlimited clean energy from something no larger than a sports utility vehicle."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2021/02/08/what-is-behind-the-us-navys-ufo-fusion-energy-patent/?sh=72c234d34733

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!