On Aug. 8, 2021, an experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) National Ignition Facility (NIF) made a significant step toward ignition, achieving a yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ). This advancement puts researchers at the threshold of fusion ignition, an important goal of the NIF, and opens access to a new experimental regime.

The experiment was enabled by focusing laser light from NIF — the size of three football fields — onto a target the size of a BB that produces a hot-spot the diameter of a human hair, generating more than 10 quadrillion watts of fusion power for 100 trillionths of a second.

“This result is a historic step forward for inertial confinement fusion research, opening a fundamentally new regime for exploration and the advancement of our critical national security missions. It is also a testament to the innovation, ingenuity, commitment and grit of this team and the many researchers in this field over the decades who have steadfastly pursued this goal,” said LLNL Director Kim Budil.

“Gaining experimental access to thermonuclear burn in the laboratory is the culmination of decades of scientific and technological work stretching across nearly 50 years,” said Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Thomas Mason. “This enables experiments that will check theory and simulation in the high energy density regime more rigorously than ever possible before and will enable fundamental achievements in applied science and engineering.”

Looking ahead, access to this new experimental regime will inspire new avenues for research and provide the opportunity to benchmark modeling used to understand the proximity to ignition.

For more information on the threshold of fusion ignition, please visit: www.llnl.gov

Photo: Credit - John Jett, LLNL (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

It turned possible for the Chinese scientists from Hefei to achieve a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds. Thus they set a new world record about which Gong Xianzu from the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) has recently announced. The experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST) also witnessed a plasma temperature of 160 million degrees Celsius, lasting for 20 seconds. The research facility comprises 300 scientists whose ultimate goal is to imitate fusion like the one of the Sun.

Song Yuntao, director of ASIPP, underlined the importance of this achievement in China's physics and engineering fields. Moreover, he was convinced that the experiment's success paves the way for China to build its own nuclear fusion energy station.

To read more about EAST and its developments, please visit: http://english.hf.cas.cn

Source: Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The exhaust system proved commercially effective for fusion power plants thanks to the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s new MAST Upgrade experiment at CCFE.

Culham scientists performing testing applied the Super-X system which made it possible to reduce excessive heat produced during the operation of the tokamak tenfold. As a result, materials and components will last longer and finally reduce the cost of fusion electricity which will turn affordable.

UKAEA’s Lead Scientist at MAST Upgrade, Dr Andrew Kirk, was quoted as saying that it was a pivotal development for the UK’s plan to put a fusion power plant on the grid by the early 2040s – and for bringing low-carbon energy from fusion to the world.

For more information about this game-changer, please visit: ccfe.ukaea.uk

Source: CCFE

Photo: Cutaway illustration of MAST Upgrade; Credit UK Atomic Energy Authority

How to track impurities such as titanium, iron, nickel, copper or tungsten migrating throughout fusion plasmas? It is possible that tiny hand-made pellets manage to perform this task. The study is carried out by three fusion parties, namely NIFS in Japan, CIEMAT in Spain and Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany.

According to fusion researcher René Bussiahn from IPP Greifswald, the Tracer Encapsulated Solid Pellets (TESPELs) proved very reliable in depositing impurities in the core plasma and observing their behaviour. Impurity transport study is one of the main task perform in many fusion devices. The upcoming W7-X campaign will involve 100 to 200 TESPELs fabricated in CIEMAT dedicated laboratory.

To learn more about the pellets please visit: www.ipp.mpg.de

Source: www.ipp.mpg.de

30 years ago, on 21 March 1991, the ASDEX Upgrade experimental device at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany generated its first plasma. The main aim of this device is to prepare plasma scenarios for JET, ITER and DEMO. ASDEX Upgrade is a full tungsten machine which deliver a lot of important information for fusion as a source of electricity.

The operation of ASDEX Upgrade resulted in performing 38,700 discharges so far and providing answers to crucial research questions dealing with, among others, the wall of the plasma vessel, instabilities in the plasma confinement conditions, continuous operation (not in pulses), and countermeasures against disruptions.

According to project leader Professor Dr. Arne Kallenbach, "ASDEX Upgrade can be seen as a 'blueprint' for a tokamak fusion power plant."

For more information about the thirty-year experience of the prototype discharges, please visit: www.ipp.mpg.de

Source: www.ipp.mpg.de
Photo: IPP; Plasma discharge in the ASDEX Upgrade fusion device