(Photo : Junko Kimura/Getty Images)
Japanese Atomic Energy Agency To Open New Facility J-PARC
NAKA, IBARAKI - JULY 23: A large tokamak device "JT-60" is located at Japan Atomic Energy Agency's (JAEA) Naka Fusion Research Institute on July 23, 2008 in Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.
Fusion Reactor Technology Tokamak In the Next Race That Advanced Nations To Produce Cleaner, Sustainable Energy
is Heating Up
The Fusion reactor is better than nuclear power plants that use fission that produces byproducts, but fusion is the holy grail of energy because it recombines matter particles to create power.
After the Chinese fusion reactor gained notoriety, the west is forging ahead to beat China in developing this revolutionary technology.
Perfecting it will harness the power of a mini-Sun that can burn for a long time as a boundless power source to fuel energy dependence from less renewable sources.
China' s New Fusion Reactor Technology to Match the Sun
According to the UK base scientists, their version of the tokamak produced 150million degrees exceeding current records for artificial suns. They are racing to overtake China, the US in beating them to produce a working reactor, according to the Sun.
About 4,800 scientists in the UK and Europe developed the JET or Joint European Torus, located in Abingdon near Oxford.
They revealed the plasma ring inside the circular tokamak reactor raised the internal temperature to ten times the sun's core; exactly 59 megajoules of energy are recorded.
It releases a five-second burst of energy equal to 11 megawatts to light up 10,000 residences.
It had an immense output from 'heavy hydrogen' fuel compared to an earlier record.
Heating the heavy hydrogen into a plasmatic state whose immense heat causes the atoms to recombine to form helium releases more energy than fission.
When an H-bomb explodes and how the core of stars behaves even the Solar System's sun, a tokamak works.
Energy release from fusing atoms is four times if they were shattered; doing it to Uranium produces more power than oil in a fusion reactor.
Hydrogen is a plentiful substance in all corners of the known universe, so it will not run out. The danger of radioactive decay or waste will not be a concern.
This is a more reliable power source than solar or wind energy; if the technology can commercially use fossil fuels and stop global warming.
Chief executive of the UK Atomic Energy Agency, Professor Ian Chapman, said the landmark results would be a step in solving a scientific and engineering challenge.
Dr. Mark Wenman, Imperial College London, remarked that fusion energy could not be far behind in the future. The basis for a cleaner future with an endless source starting now.
Another tokamak project in development is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter), a bigger version of the JET. The Iter is located in Southern France.
It is expected to be turned on in a few years and create energy in a vast amount than the power to make it run.
China and India are working together to develop the tokamak reactor; other nations are the UK, Russia, the US, and Japan.
It is a competition to get the first work working reactor online, with many researchers making advances too. But some sectors want the money for Iter to be spent on something else.
Now joining the race are governments private corporations that have their development path.
The JET did not highlight it took a lot of power to fuel a five-second test to produce the power. Too many variables like what can hold the plasma and controlling a sustained reaction are stumbling blocks.
Fusion Reactors or tokamak like the JET and EAST of China are harnessing fusion power in a fantastic race for limitless power.
Related article: China's 'Tokamak' Nuclear Fusion Reactor Reaches 216 Million Degrees Fahrenheit for Generation of Clean Power
