More than 6 weeks ago, a nuclear reactor in France achieved a record 6 minutes of energy producing fusion - and the scientific community are still excited about it as you can see from the article below.
Previously, the inside chamber of the reactor was lined with graphite but a swap to a tungsten coating has proved to be a huge success
This, of course, is great news for the tungsten community which will add further longer term demand to this magic metal - it also helps to explain why the international community are collaborating so well on their Critical Minerals agreementsScientists use rare metal to setnew record in effort to produce limitless energy: 'It was a pretty remarkableresult'
Story byLeslie Sattler
• 3w • 2 min read
Nuclear fusion just got a huge boost from an innovative source —tungsten.
In a landmark achievement, scientists in France sustained a fusionreaction for a record-breaking six minutes while injecting over a billionjoules of energy. This brings us one major step closer to clean, abundantenergy that can transform our world, according to Interesting Engineering.
The breakthrough happened at a donut-shaped reactor called a tokamak. By heating hydrogen to a scorching 50 million degrees Celsius (about 90 million degrees Fahrenheit), researchers created a super-hot plasma under conditions similar to what powers the sun.
The goal is to get way more energy out than what's put in — the key tomaking fusion a viable power source.
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab researcher Tullio Barbui said, per Interesting Engineering: "During the six-minute shot, we were able to measure quite nicely the central electron temperature. It was in a very steady state of around 4 kilovolts. It was a pretty remarkable result."
What's the secret ingredient in this record-setting reaction? The raremetal tungsten. Most tokamaks use graphite inner walls, but tungsten could be themagic bullet for larger, more efficient reactors.It doesn't retain any fuel, allowing the plasma to stay hotter and denser — perfect conditions for cranking out massive amounts of energy.
For everyday folks, this could eventually mean a future with cheaper,cleaner, virtually limitless electricity. Fusion power plants could one day provide always-on, carbon-free energy with no planet-heating pollution. That's a huge win for both our wallets and our environment.
"This is, simply, the difference between trying to grab your kittenat home versus trying to pet the wildest lion," said Luis Delgado-Aparicio, a lead scientist at Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, on the challenge of working with tungsten versus graphite.
But those crazy kittens — er, particles — are starting to fall in line,according to Xavier Litaudon, a researcher at the French Alternative Energiesand Atomic Energy Commission.
"Thanks to these new measurements, we will have the ability tomeasure the tungsten inside the plasma and to understand the transport oftungsten from the wall to the core of the plasma," he said.
In other words, we're getting a handle on this white-hot fusion cookie,one crunchy tungsten bite at a time. And that's something we can all get fired up about.
