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Chaos could keep fusion under control |
A leaky magnetic bottle may prove key to making a reactor.
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Science Magazine is calling attention to the preparations for experiments on EAST, the new superconducting tokamak in China. The Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei has done an exemplary job in completing construction on a new tokamak capable of operation for extended pulses (up to a 1000 seconds). This will allow experiments that simulate operating conditions for the much larger ITER experiment being constructed in France. China, Korea, and India have all taken up the challenge of constructing a superconducting tokamak (most existing experiments use short pulse, copper coil magnets) that follow the general concept of the Tokamak Physics Experiment, a project at Princeton Plasma Physics Lab that was cancelled by a short-sighted U.S. Congress in 1995. There is now no such capability in the U.S. and scientists here are developing proposals for long distance collaboration on the new Asian tokamaks.
ENERGY ALTERNATIVES:  Waiting for ITER, Fusion Jocks Look EAST
Dennis Normile*
HEFEI, CHINA--The official launch of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project next week will mark a coming of age for fusion research in Asia. When the $11 billion effort was initiated in 1985, ITER's four original backers--the United States, the European Union, Japan, and the Soviet Union--accounted for nearly all worldwide research into harnessing fusion, the process that powers the sun, to produce energy. But now the three newest ITER partners, China, South Korea, and India, are showing that they didn't just buy their way into one of the biggest physics experiments since the Manhattan Project: They are contributing crucial expertise as well.
The first new Asian fusion tiger out of the gate is the Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which in March completed testing a machine that has never been built before: a fully superconducting tokamak. This toroidal vessel isn't the largest or most powerful device for containing the superhot plasma in which hydrogen isotopes fuse and release energy. But until India and South Korea bring similar machines online (see sidebar, p. 993), it will be the only tokamak capable of confining a plasma for up to 1000 seconds, instead of the tens of seconds that machines elsewhere can muster. ITER, expected to be completed in Cadarache, France, in 2016, will have to sustain plasmas far longer to demonstrate fusion as a viable energy source. But researchers from China and around the world will be able to use IPP's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) to get a head start on learning to tame plasmas for extended periods. "This will make a big contribution for the future of fusion reactors," declares Wan Yuanxi, a plasma physicist who heads EAST. (Complete article at Science)
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Global Energy Prize awarded to ITER collaborators |
The Global Energy Prize for 2006 has been awarded to Academician Evgeny Velikhov (Russia), Doctor Masaji Yoshikawa (Japan), and Doctor Robert Aymar (France) "or the development of scientific and engineering foundation for building the International Thermonuclear Reactor (ITER project)". This is important recognition of the long and difficult effort that has been required to take the ITER proposal from discussion to large-scale international collaboration. It also recognizes the important role that ITER plays in providing an alternative energy path for the future.
The Global Energy International Prize is a unique award intended to assist international cooperation in solving the most important current problems in the field of power generation. The award was suggested by a group of Russian scientists headed Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov and endowed in 2002 by three large Russian energy firms. The total award in 2006 will be approximately $1.1M to be divided among the three participants
The Prize is awarded annualy for scientific achievements in the following spheres:
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