Nuclear fusion is the holy grail of energy generation because by fusing two hydrogen atoms together into a single helium atom it releases enormous amounts of energy, yet represents a clean, safe, sustainable and secure form of power.
The most tried and true approach for generating nuclear fusion energy has been a tokamak fusion reactor, which uses very high density magnetic fields to compress and contain a plasma to 100 million degrees. But none has been able to generate more electricity than it consumes. Until now.
Director Whyte will describe the ARC nuclear fusion reactor (shown above right), based on a new superconducting material, for achieving very high density magnetic fields. It will be used as a research center, but could ultimately become a prototype for an inexpensive 200MW power plant, vaulting nuclear fusion from scientific curiosity to potential commercialization.
The ARC reactor is being designed to produce at least 3 times the power required to run it, which has never been done before and is the result of several new technologies which dramatically reduce the size and cost.
The biggest breakthrough is a new superconducting material which produces a much higher magnetic field density, yielding a ten-fold increase in fusion power per volume. Molten salt will be used as a liquid cooling blanket for fast heat transfer and easy maintenance. And 3D printing techniques will allow the fabrication of reactor components in shapes that cannot be made by milling machines. The result is a much smaller, lower cost and highly efficient modular power plant with zero emissions and abundant fuel.
Dennis Whyte, recently promoted to run MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Department and Director of MIT’s Plasma Science & Fusion Center, works in magnetic fusion and specializes in the interface between the plasma and materials.
Dennis received his PhD from the Universite du Quebec in 1993. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Dennis was awarded the Department of Energy’s Plasma Physics Junior Faculty Award in 2003 and won the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Nuclear Fusion Prize in 2013. He is a two-time winner of the MIT Joel and Ruth Spira Award for teaching excellence. Among his many lectures on fusion energy research, Dennis was an invited speaker at CERAWeek and the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Distinguished Lecturer in 2015.
10 июн 2024
