American scientific breakthrough to prevent damage from fugitive electrons in fusion reactors.
Scientists from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have made a major breakthrough using the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to simulate a potential solution to the problem of fugitive electrons in fusion reactors. This research could significantly impact ITERthe largest nuclear fusion reactor under construction in France, by preventing damage that could compromise its operation.
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Fusion poses 2 major long-term logistical problems that scientists are trying to solve
If we consider that the technical problems of the “pure” operational order will one day be solved, such as the confinement of the plasma, at a very high temperature, long enough for the cost of fusion to be amortized; there will subsequently be 2 longer-term logistical problems to resolve:
- Find a sustainable supply of tritium, a rare and radioactive element necessary as fuel (there are only 25 kg currently usable in the entire world)
- Developing materials capable of withstanding intense neutron fluxes and extreme temperatures over long periods remains.
It is this last point that the PPPL study tries to resolve.
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Alfvén waves: A potential solution
Fugitive electrons are negatively charged particles that can form during fusion reactions, accelerating to high energies and causing significant damage to reactor walls. Simulations showed that Alfvén waves, wave-like fluctuations in the plasma’s magnetic field, can scatter these electrons and prevent the formation of a destructive beam.
Potential impact on ITER
The ability of Alfvén waves to scatter electrons reduces their energy and prevents damage, providing a striking analogy to preventative snow removal from slopes to avoid avalanches. This discovery could pave the way for new methods to control fugitive electrons in fusion reactors and secure the operation of ITER.
The power of the Summit supercomputer
The simulations were performed on Summit, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, capable of more than 200 quadrillion calculations per second. These simulations would have taken 30 times longer on a standard CPU-based machine, highlighting the importance of this advanced technology in modeling the complex challenges of nuclear fusion.
Next steps and promising future
The researchers plan to incorporate other potential scenarios into the model and work on optimizing the code for Frontier, Summit’s successor. With the power and large memory capacity of Frontier, it will be possible to include more particles and their interactions to simulate the process even more realistically.
Crucial simulations for the future of nuclear power
The results of these simulations, aligned with those of similar experiments at DOE’s National Fusion Facility, are crucial to overcoming the challenges of nuclear fusion. Liu’s team hopes that their work will help pave the way for a promising future for clean nuclear energy, while recognizing that many other challenges (such as the world’s woefully insufficient reserves of tritium as brilliantly outlined in the video below) still need to be resolved to fully realize nuclear fusion.
This article explores a significant advance made by American scientists in preventing damage from fugitive electrons in fusion reactors, through the use of Alfvén waves and the power of the Summit supercomputer. This research plays a crucial role in the future viability of ITER and could potentially transform the clean nuclear energy landscape.
Source : https://www.ornl.gov/news/reining-runaway-electrons-summit-study-could-help-solve-fusion-dilemma
