If scientists can get nuclear fusion reactors to work, it could unlock the secret to providing our society with virtually unlimited clean, renewable energy. Although researchers aren't there yet, they have just gotten one step closer by developing a potential way to keep super-hot plasma separate from the energy-generating coolant inside a fusion reactor, Popular Mechanics reported.
Although nuclear power plants already exist, they operate using nuclear fission — the nuclear reaction where atoms are split apart. Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, occurs when two atoms slam together, mimicking the same process that powers the sun.
If scientists can harness that power, it could provide virtually unlimited energy (without the same level of radioactive byproducts that come from nuclear fission), which is why some have dubbed it the "holy grail" of clean energy.
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One of the hurdles scientists must first clear to harness that power is building tokamaks — torus-shaped devices that can contain nuclear fusion reactions — which can withstand the incredibly hot plasma roiling around inside.
Now, MIT researchers believe they may have found the solution. In a study published in the journal Acta Materialia, senior author Ju Li laid out a method for drawing away problematic helium atoms that could wreak havoc on the inner walls of the tokamak — by dispersing iron silicate into the bulk metal.
"We want to disperse the ceramic phase uniformly in the bulk metal to ensure that all grain boundary regions are close to the dispersed ceramic phase, so it can provide protection to those regions," Li said in a press statement. "The two phases need to coexist, so the ceramic won't either clump together or totally dissolve in the iron."
If that all sounds a bit dense and science-y, the good news is that this breakthrough could bring us one step closer to an energy source that could be scaled up to provide all the power we need, without releasing tons of planet-overheating air pollution like our current primary energy sources: gas and oil.
In other recent good nuclear fusion-related news, a Tokyo-based company just launched a pilot nuclear fusion reactor, and a San Francisco company recently developed a process for refining one of the rare elements necessary to keep the plants running.
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