20 Apr 13h00-14h00
Nuclear fusion on Earth would be the ideal solution for our future energy supply with almost unlimited ressources and excellent compatibility with the environment. The easiest fusion reaction on Earth is that between the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, and requires about 150 million degrees, i.e. about 10 times hotter than at the centre of our sun.
The lecture will explain the physics of fusion reactions and fusion machines. The two main lines of research under the coordination of EUROfusion, the tokamak and the stellarator, will be highlighted. A summary will be given of the progress made in recent years on the world's largest fusion machine, the Joint European Torus (JET) at Culham, near Oxford, UK, and on other machines worldwide. Particular emphasis will be placed on the recent major milestone achieved at JET with a record 59MJ of fusion energy and on progress in the construction of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) at Cadarache, France, the world's largest scientific project. Initial activities on ITER are planned for 2027. The ultimate goal of ITER is to produce 500MW of fusion power in pulses of about 10 minutes, this is 10 times more power from fusion reactions than is needed to heat the machine to the required ultra-high temperatures.
Developments towards the first fusion reactor prototype DEMO (in Europe) and CFETR (in China) will also be briefly explained.
The Laboratory for Plasma Physics of the Royal Military Academy (LPP-ERM-KMS) is world leader for heating of fusion machines with antennas emitting in the short wave range (25-60MHz) at multi-MW power levels. Recent major contributions of LPP-ERM/KMS to JET, ITER and the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X of the Max-Planck Institute in Greifswald (former eastern Germany) will be described.
Fusion research presents an ideal opportunity for young and ambitious physicists and engineers to prepare their own energy future and holds the promise of contributing substantially to our future electricity supply and. A true challenge but with an enormous reward to the benefit of future generations.
(the video of this webinar is not available)