French research reactor WEST receives plasma for 22 minutes
Plasma was kept stable for 22 minutes at the French research reactor WEST. The team wants to achieve several hours in future.
Vacuum chamber of the WEST fusion research reactor: longer and hotter
(Image: CEA-IRFM-C.ROUX)
West beats East: A new plasma record has been set at the French research reactor WEST. The French have beaten the record recently set in China by several minutes. ITER is set to benefit from both records.
The plasma in the WEST reactor was kept stable for 1,337 seconds, more than 22 minutes. This was achieved on February 12th, as announced by the French atomic energy authority Commissariat Ă l'Ă©nergie atomique et aux Ă©nergies alternatives (CEA). The temperature of the plasma reached 50 million degrees Celsius.
This was more than 25 percent higher than the recently set record in China: At the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion reactor, plasma with a temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius was maintained for almost 18 minutes in January.
Plasma maintained for several hours
According to the CEA, keeping the plasma stable for periods of time such as those now achieved is an important step forward regarding the future research reactor International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The WEST team intends to continue working in this direction in the coming months. The aim is to achieve very long plasma durations – up to several hours – and higher temperatures.
The experimental research reactor W (Tungsten) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak is located in Cadarache. ITER is also being built there. This project in Cadarache in southern France involves 35 nations, including the European Union, China, Russia and the USA.
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In nuclear fusion, nuclei of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium (D) and tritium (T) are fused. Very high temperatures of over 100 million degrees Celsius are required to overcome the repulsion of the nuclei. The conditions are generated in a ring-shaped reactor chamber, the tokamak, in which the plasma is held in a magnetic field. When ions collide in the plasma, they do not repel each other but fuse. This releases a neutron and a lot of energy, which is used to generate electricity.
(wpl)
