Â鶹ÒùÔº

Magnetic confinement advance promises 100 times more fusion power at half the cost

A team of fusion researchers at TAE Technologies, Inc., in the U.S., working with colleagues from the University of California, has developed a new type of fusion technology that the company claims produces 100 times the power of other designs while costing just half as much to run. Their study is in the journal Nature Communications.

Over the past several decades, scientists around the world have been trying to find a way to produce electricity using fusion reactors. Despite recent advancements, commercial electricity produced by fusion reaction power plants is still likely years away, due mainly to inefficiencies and cost. The team working in California claims that they have made significant inroads into solving both problems.

Their work was focused mostly on improving the field-reversed configuration (FRC), a magnetic confinement technique. As the researchers note, generating fusion reactions involves first generating plasma, which has to be contained. Because it is so hot, it cannot simply be contained; instead, it is held in place by a magnetic field.

Current efforts involve generating the magnetic field around the area where the plasma is generated using conventional techniques, which use a lot of electricity. The FRC works by generating its own magnetic field to hold the plasma, instead of using a housing. Unfortunately, prior efforts to build a working FRC did not pan out as hoped.

In this new study, the team claims they have solved previous problems with the technique, which may eventually allow for a working fusion reactor. This will allow such a reactor to produce 100 times as much power as other reactors, such as tokamaks.

The researchers also note that their approach improves the possibility of using hydrogen boron as a fuel for the reactor, which they claim is safer and cleaner than the fuels being used in other research studies. Also, because the FRC substantially reduces the need for external magnets, the reactor could run at a far lower cost.

The team at TAE also claims their design is simpler than others and that building it will be easier and less costly. They call the proposed design Norm, in a nod to previous attempts to use similar technology in a device that was called Norman.