Private company turns on Tokamak for the first time

Vertigo

Vertigo

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Still some way to go but interesting all the same and I've not heard about this private enterprise before.

Tokamak Energy turns on ST40 fusion reactor

The UK's newest fusion reactor has been turned on for the first time and has officially achieved first plasma. The reactor aims to produce a record-breaking plasma temperature of 100 million degrees for a privately-funded venture. This is seven times hotter than the centre of the Sun and the temperature necessary for controlled fusion.

Oxford, England-based Tokamak Energy said today that with its ST40 reactor "up and running", the next steps are to complete the commissioning and installation of the full set of magnetic coils which are crucial to reaching the temperatures required for fusion. This will allow the ST40 to produce a plasma temperature of 15 million degrees - as hot as the centre of the Sun - in the autumn of this year.
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If Nuclear Fusion can ever be achieved commercially then it is true clean energy. A very small amount of Hydrogen goes in and Helium comes out. Okay that's a bit of a simplification, but it is still essentially what happens. There is no radioactive fuel or waste. Successful Nuclear Fusion, if/when achieved, promises to completely solve all our energy problems almost overnight. There would no longer be any need for wind turbines, tidal generators or any other form of renewable energy and certainly no need for fossil fuels.

However there is still a lot of scepticism about whether we will ever be able to actually do it...
 
Clean energy should be really great for most of us.

I remember we had a movie with Val Kilmer about cold fusion. Not sure if it's the same, but the result is the same.
 
Yeah, 'cold fusion' was a bit of a sci fi pipe dream for a while. But any kind of fusion is the dream really. There are many (myself included) who believe we will never be able to replace fossil with all the 'renewables' currently on the cards; our only real chance is to succeed in the quest for fusion. It will be interesting to see how these folks manage.
 
Just to let you people know that ST40's company is not the only company working on hot fusion. There are others who are hoping to get a working hot fusion generator within ten years and are fairly confident of succeeding.
As for cold fusion - people are still looking into it, only now after the Pons and Fleishman disaster it's now called Low Energy Nuclear Reactions.
 
Serendipity said:
Just to let you people know that ST40's company is not the only company working on hot fusion. There are others who are hoping to get a working hot fusion generator within ten years and are fairly confident of succeeding.
As for cold fusion - people are still looking into it, only now after the Pons and Fleishman disaster it's now called Low Energy Nuclear Reactions.
Click to expand...
Sweet... I love that name!
 
Within ten years ? A lot of things can happen in 10 years. Humans can finally land on Mars or aliens come to visit us AGAIN, but this time giving press interviews and you know, everything else...;)
 
It's been ten years away for decades now... I'll believe it when I see it!
 
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