It seems there are few problems in this advanced technical age that some well-placed lithium can't help to solve.
While the element is already prominent in batteries, researchers in the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) think that including lithium "caves" in next-gen fusion reactors can help to control the sun-like temperatures needed to create cleaner renewable energy, according to a lab summary.
It's incredible science that could transform our power sector to a greater extent than perhaps any other alternative. Both fusion and fission reactors create heat that would power turbines to create electricity. Fission, used in the country's 54 operating plants, is reliable. But it creates long-lasting nuclear waste and carries rare, yet potentially disastrous meltdown risks.
Fusion is far safer, producing no long-lasting radioactive waste, according to the DOE. This process is still in development for power plants. Yet experts around the world have been working on ways to stabilize the reaction using less energy than what is required for production.
Doughnut-shaped tokamaks are magnetic devices built to contain the burning plasma that's part of the reaction, per the DOE. The PPPL experts think placing a "cave" of lithium vapor inside a tokamak could provide it protection from the intensely hot plasma, they wrote in the lab report.
The team's "expertise in using liquid metals … for enhanced fusion performance is helping refine ideas about how it can best be deployed inside a tokamak," Rajesh Maingi, head of tokamak experimental science, said in the summary.
A key finding was where to best place the cave. The experts used computer simulations to help with the analysis. Those calculations determined that the bottom of the tokamak, near the "center stack," is the ideal spot. This is far enough away from the extremely hot plasma, but close enough to the heat to set off "lithium vapor particles" help regulate the heat, all per the lab report.
"You don't want your core plasma to get dirty with lithium and cool, but you also want the lithium to do some heat mitigation," Eric Emdee, lead author of the work, said.
The research helped the scientists decide that a cave shape is the best housing for vapor lithium, as opposed to a nearly enclosed box. They also gained insight on how neutral particles behave inside the tokamak, helping to dissipate heat. The team is now considering a porous, plasma-facing wall that would allow the lithium to be sent to areas where it's needed most to help with temperature management, all per the summary.
If fusion power can be commercialized, it would provide a groundbreaking energy source that produces no heat-trapping air pollution. Experts at the National Institutes of Health are studying links between long-term air pollution exposure and dementia risks, as more evidence of the dirty air's impact on our health.
The good news is that there's already a way to tap abundant, renewable nuclear fusion energy — via the sun, which is itself a natural fusion reactor. Rooftop solar panels save homeowners on average nearly $700 a year, according to a government study. That's factoring in costs for the system. After the panels — which last for up to 30 years — are paid for, you can save close to $2,000 a year on energy costs, per the report.
Fortunately, free online tools are available to help you secure thousands of dollars in government tax breaks to pay for some of the installation costs.
In the meantime, the PPPL experts might be on the cusp of even bigger fusion findings. The recently announced lithium vapor report is a pivotal step, they said.
"For years, we thought we needed a full, four-sided box, but now we know we can make something much simpler," Emdee said of the lithium housing. "Now we call it the cave."
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