Burning like the Sun
Engineers building parts of a new type of power plant for generating green energy with nuclear fusion are using their expertise from building rockets like Europe’s Ariane 5 to create the super-strong structures to cope with conditions similar to those inside the Sun.
A technique for building launcher and satellite components has turned out to be the best way for constructing rings to support the powerful magnetic coils inside the machine.
Meaning “the way” in Latin, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ITER, is the world’s largest nuclear fusion experiment on generating electricity and is now being built in France.
Source & further reading:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/TTP2/Burning_like_the_Sun
#esa #ITER #space #engineering
If this works well and is sustainable and cost effective, that can only be a good thing. Safer than the fission reactors as well hopefully, as long as you can contain the energy
ReplyDeleteYes, but safer than tides, wind, solar and water falling ?
ReplyDeleteRenewables are probably better long term, but there are still the issues with energy storage, for overcast days, nightime, no wind and so forth. There is the need to generate energy at peak times, so a mix is needed and efficiency savings with technology
ReplyDeleteElon Musk to the rescue with Battery longevity for storage.
ReplyDeleteIt's bound now to this strange toponym of Cadarache. On the positive side, it contains in order the letters of either Cadre (frame) and Arche, (arch).
ReplyDelete"green energy with nuclear fusion"... green ? !
ReplyDeleteWP: The natural product of the fusion reaction is a small amount of helium, which is completely harmless to life. Of more concern is tritium, which, like other isotopes of hydrogen, is difficult to retain completely. During normal operation, some amount of tritium will be continually released. There would be no acute danger, but the cumulative effect on the world's population from a fusion economy could be a matter of concern. Although tritium is volatile and biologically active, the health risk posed by a release is much lower than that of most radioactive contaminants, because of tritium's short half-life (12.32 years) and very low decay energy (~14.95 keV), and because it does not bioaccumulate (instead being cycled out of the body as water, with a biological half-life of 7 to 14 days). Current ITER designs are investigating total containment facilities for any tritium.
ReplyDelete