Scientists have continued to work on cracking the code of nuclear fusion, a process by which low-cost, clean energy could theoretically come in massive quantities, and recent research indicates that they're getting close to making a breakthrough.
According to the University of Seville, via SciTechDaily, researchers have been focusing their efforts on tokamaks, a reactor design that uses electromagnetic fields to contain the necessary plasma to create the fusion reaction that generates energy.
Tokamaks have a ton of potential, given their overall stability, but they have issues along the edges of the plasma fields. In essence, the plasma can grow unstable in spots along the edges, and that instability leads to something known as Edge Localized Modes, which are similar to solar flares, as SciTechDaily noted, in terms of how they appear and the ways in which they cause significant losses of both material and energy. These losses can erode the reactor and cause extreme temperatures on the parts of the reactor that face the plasma, making it incredibly tough to maintain fusion.
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Yes — it'll pay off 👍 However, in studying those ELMs, scientists have found that they interact with energetic particles in a very particular way. Understanding that interaction could help contain ELMs, reducing the potential damage done to the reactor itself in the process.
They found that the energetic ion kinetic effects "can alter the spatio-temporal structure of the edge localized modes," per SciTechDaily — essentially allowing them to control these flare-ups.
Fusion has been inching closer and closer toward viability in recent months as scientists make breakthroughs in the technology needed to achieve it in a commercially viable way (though commercial use could still be decades away). In California, a company has been making strides with electromagnetically compressed energy pulses, while another said its reactor will be able to power the entire city of San Francisco with three soda cans worth of fuel per day. At Princeton, scientists have successfully built the first quadrant of a full fusion reactor, a massive achievement in the process.
In this case, more research is needed to determine just how the energetic ions can help contain the ELMs and whether that containment can be effectively controlled and utilized, but it's a promising step in the process.
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