Fusion Reactor Sets New Endurance Record

!splut writes "Fusion fans out there will be interested to know that an experimental French fusion reactor has set a new duration record of 210 seconds. Most fusion reactor research works (or tries to) by containing and compressing a quantity of plasma via an electomagnetic field in a toroidial chamber. Fusion energy could potentially provide a a clean, efficient, and virtually inexhaustible source of energy, but fusion reactoins have proven difficult to contain and control, so this is a significant achievement."

Comments

Self Powering

[ThOr101]

It appears as though a HUGE amount of energy is required to contain and control the system. Would the system be able to generate enough energy to control itself, and have excess power to give away?

US withdrew?

[jacoberrol]

ITER's planners hope to decide on a site in 2003; candidates are in Japan, France, Spain, and Canada. If all goes to plan, construction will begin in 2005, with operation to start around 2013. The US, which earlier withdrew from ITER, is now considering returning.

Anyone know why the US withdrew from ITER? Returning after a succesful experiment makes us look like bandwagoners.

Re:US withdrew?

[frankske]

IIRC, the US withdrew because it was too costly. That's the official version. The unofficial version is that the US thinks it can figure the Secret to Fusion out themselves. If the Iter would find it, it would have to be shared among ITER members. If the US finds the secret, they can keep it to themselves... Because basicly, it's quite simpel: if we allow one nation (or 2 nations) to keep the secret to Fusion, that country will rule the world... One Tokamak to Rule Them All and in Power binds them!

Re:US withdrew?

[spike hay]

Actually fusion really isn't the miracle power source they have made it out to be. Sure, it doesn't pollute, and the fuel cost is almost peanuts. But the reactors themselves will always cost huge amounts of money and still take quite a bit of manpower to run.

However, fusion will still eventually end up somewhat cheaper than other forms of power generation. It just isn't a miracle "too cheap to meter" type of thing.

Re:Previous record?

[sl956]

The article doesn't say. What was the previous record?

The same french tokamak (Tore Supra) had set the previous record of 120 seconds in 1996.
The figures on this page (in french) shows that the reactor produced 2MW during most of that 1996 experiment. That is 2MW of *excess* power for such a small experimental reactor!!!

Self Sustaining?

[marcus]

I think that you have fallen into a semantic trap.

"Sustaining" is too vague. The ultimate definition of a "viable", or "commercially usable" reactor is one that produces enough power so that by selling that power it can pay for itself, it's fuel, staff, etc. This is what an electrical power plant does. It costs $X to build, $Y/yr to maintain, and operate. If the power that it generates can be sold for > X + (Y * useful_lifespan), then the power plant is viable and probably will be built by somebody.

There are designs for fusion plants that are purposefully not "sustaining". Instead, they pulse. During the pulses, they make more than enough power to fire off the next pulse. What they don't do, yet, is make enough to fire off the next pulse, AND pay for themselves.