Nuclear fusion device's 1st test with hydrogen declared a success
Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Greifswald successfully generated a plasma for a fraction of a second
Nuclear fusion device's 1st test with hydrogen declared a success - Technology & Science - CBC News
Scientists in Germany flipped the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power.
The resulting super-hot gas, known as plasma, lasted just a fraction of a second before cooling down again, long enough for scientists to confidently declare the start of their experiment a success.
"Everything went well today," said Robert Wolf, a senior scientist involved with the project. "With a system as complex as this you have to make sure everything works perfectly and there's always a risk."
Among the difficulties is how to cool the complex arrangement of magnets required to keep the plasma floating inside the device, Wolf said. Scientists looked closely at the hiccups experienced during the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland more than five years ago to avoid similar mistakes, he said.
Following nine years of construction and testing, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald injected a tiny amount of hydrogen into a doughnut-shaped device — then zapped it with the equivalent of 6,000 microwave ovens.
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Comments at Voat:
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[–] ginger-saurus-rex
Just an FYI: they didn't succeed in nuclear fusion, they succeeded in sustaining a hydrogen plasma at much lower temperatures than are required for successful hydrogen fusion. However, this is an enormous leap towards actually achieving man-sustained fusion and generating power from it.