Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumFusion: The quest to recreate the Sun’s power on Earth (BBC)
by Gaia Vince
Cadarache: In the dusty highlands of Provence in southern France, workers have excavated a vast rectangular pit 17 metres (56 feet) down into the unforgiving rocks. From my raised vantage point, I can see bright yellow mechanical diggers and trucks buzzing around the edge of the pit, looking toy-like in the huge construction site. Above us, the fireball Sun dries the air at an unrelenting 37C.
These are embryonic stages to what is perhaps humankind's most ambitious scientific and engineering project: to replicate the Sun here on Earth.
When construction is complete, the pit will host a 73-metre-high machine (240 feet) that will attempt to create boundless energy by smashing hydrogen nuclei together, in much the same way as stars like our Sun do. Physicists have dreamed of being able to produce cheap, safe and plentiful energy through atomic fusion since the 1950s. Around the world, researchers continue to experiment with creating fusion energy using various methods. But as people within the field have said the dream has always been "30 years away" from realisation.
The need for a new energy source has never been more pressing. Global energy demand is expected to double by 2050, while the share coming from fossil fuels currently 85% needs to drop dramatically if we are to reduce carbon emissions and limit global warming.
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And that is the big gamble. So far, the world's best and biggest tokamak, the JET experiment in the UK, hasn't even managed to break even, energy-wise. Its best ever result, in 1997, achieved a 16 MW output with a 25 MW input. Scale is an extremely important factor for tokamaks, though. Iter will be twice the size of JET, as well as featuring a number of design improvements.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120810-the-quest-to-recreate-the-sun/2
aquart
(69,014 posts)DavidDvorkin
(19,404 posts)Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)were channeled to Geothermal, we could save this planet.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)you know, compared to what we burn every year on endless wars and bailouts for banksters. We could double the amount of money spent on every energy-related R&D project out there, without breaking a sweat.
hunter
(38,264 posts)But our politicians belong to the fossil fuel industries and the war machine defending those industries.