Scientists Discover Islands Of Magnetic Stability That Could Unlock Fusion Power
Tokamak’s biggest weakness could soon be fixed.
You may have heard of a little thing called nuclear fusion. It powers the Sun and could be the ultimate clean energy. Theoretically, we could harness it to produce near-limitless amounts of on-demand energy with zero carbon emissions and practically no nuclear waste. But there is a problem: the fusion reactors we currently have use more energy to create fusion than they get out of the fusion reactions, making it a useless energy source. Even the most promising and refined reactor design, known as a tokamak, struggles with this issue. One of the significant obstructions stopping tokamaks from overcoming this issue is periodic plasma instabilities called edge-localised modes (ELMs). These instabilities in the edge of the reactor’s plasma fuel result in a considerable amount of energy leaking into the walls of the reaction chamber. Not only does this cause the fusion reactions to fizzle out, but it can severely damage the tokamak itself. However, Physicists from Germany and the US have discovered a brilliant way to solve this problem by combining two emerging plasma stabilisation techniques. So, the question has to be asked: could this unlock fusion power?
