Future thermonuclear reactions inside tokamaks could produce much more energy than previously thought
Physicists from the Swiss Plasma Center atThe Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EFPL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) found that the maximum density of hydrogen fuel is about twice the Greenwald limit. It is named after MIT physicist Martin Greenwald, who identified it in 1988 through experiments.
The researchers tried to figure out whythe fusion plasma actually became uncontrollable when they increased the density of the fuel to a certain point, and Greenwald deduced an experimental limit based on the small radius tokamak and the amount of electric current passing through the plasma.
Although scientists have long suspected that the limitGreenwald can be improved upon, this has been a fundamental rule of fusion research for over 30 years. For example, it is a guiding principle in the design of ITER.
The latest study, however, expands on howexperiments and theory that Greenwald used to derive his limit, which leads to a much higher fuel density limit that will increase the power of ITER and affect the designs of the DEMO reactors that come after it.
The key, the scientists said, was the discovery that the plasma could maintain a higher fuel density as the power output of the fusion reaction increased.
It is not yet possible to know how such a largethe increase in fuel density will affect the power output of tokamaks, but it is likely to be significant. Research shows that higher fuel density will make fusion reactors easier to operate.
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