The world supply of tritium (used with deuterium to fuel the fusion reaction) is not sufficient to cover the needs of future power plants. One of the missions for the later stages of ITER operation is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing tritium within the vacuum vessel. Scientists are confident that the plasmas in ITER will not only produce much more fusion energy, but will remain stable for longer periods of time. Scientists will be able to study plasmas under conditions similar to those expected in a future power plant and test technologies such as heating, control, diagnostics, cryogenics and remote maintenance.ģ) Achieve a deuterium-tritium plasma in which the reaction is sustained through internal heatingįusion research today is at the threshold of exploring a "burning plasma"-one in which the heat from the fusion reaction is confined within the plasma efficiently enough for the reaction to be sustained for a long duration. ITER will bridge the gap between today's smaller-scale experimental fusion devices and the demonstration fusion power plants of the future. ITER will not capture the energy it produces as electricity, but-as first of all fusion experiments in history to produce net energy gain-it will prepare the way for the machine that can.Ģ) Demonstrate the integrated operation of technologies for a fusion power plant ITER is designed to produce a ten-fold return on energy (Q=10), or 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of input heating power. In 1997, JET produced 16 MW of fusion power from a total input heating power of 24 MW (Q=0.67). The world record for fusion power is held by the European tokamak JET. ![]() The machine has been designed specifically to: With ten times the plasma volume of the largest machine operating today, the ITER Tokamak will be a unique experimental tool, capable of longer plasmas and better confinement. and therefore the greater the potential for fusion energy. Scientists know that the larger the vessel, the larger the volume of the plasma. The amount of fusion energy a tokamak is capable of producing is a direct result of the number of fusion reactions taking place in its core.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |