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posted by cmn32480 on Friday December 11 2015, @03:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the we'll-have-fusion-in-10-years-maybe dept.

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) is reporting a successful startup of the experimental Wendelstein 7-X fusion device.

On 10th December, the day had arrived: the operating team in the control room started up the magnetic field and initiated the computer-operated experiment control system. It fed around one milligram of helium gas into the evacuated plasma vessel, switched on the microwave heating for a short 1,3 megawatt pulse – and the first plasma could be observed by the installed cameras and measuring devices.

"We're starting with a plasma produced from the noble gas helium. We're not changing over to the actual investigation object, a hydrogen plasma, until next year," explains project leader Professor Thomas Klinger: "This is because it's easier to achieve the plasma state with helium. In addition, we can clean the surface of the plasma vessel with helium plasmas."

The objective of fusion research is to develop a power source that is friendly to the climate and, similarly to the sun, harvests energy from the fusion of atomic nuclei.


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  • (Score: 1) by WalksOnDirt on Friday December 11 2015, @11:29PM

    by WalksOnDirt (5854) on Friday December 11 2015, @11:29PM (#275220) Journal

    ...we will finally have sustainable, clean energy.

    How clean do you want it? This device, once it is producing power, will create many neutrons. They will make nearby materials radioactive, which will need disposal. This will only be somewhat cleaner than advanced fission reactors, which we have also not yet built but they look a lot easier.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @03:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @03:35PM (#275423)

    some elements, if fused, dont produce neutrons ... or how i like to call them "zippers" because they activate stable shit and then "zip" they decay down the chain. ^_^