Successful hydrogen test - A step closer toward nuclear fusion

Following nine years of construction and testing, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald injected a tiny amount of hydrogen into Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Greifswald, which successfully generated a plasma for a fraction of a second before cooling down again, long enough for scientists to confidently declare the start of their experiment a success.
The experiment in Greifswald is part of a world-wide effort to harness nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power. It is a process in which atoms join at extremely high temperatures and release large amounts of energy that's similar to what occurs inside the sun.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel , center, who holds a doctorate in physics (I had no idea about this), personally pressed the button at Wednesday's launch of an experiment.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nuclear-fusion-greifswald-1.3431541

 

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I read this with my usual jaundiced scepticism where fusion devices are concerned, but I must say I was more impressed with this than in similar cases in the past. I see that, contrary to superficial appearances, this is not a tokamak: the principle of confinement is different. From what they say it is an utter bastard to build, but should then operate more smoothly and easily than a tokamak. And now, it seems to have worked well from day one, surprising and impressing the experimental fusion community. If any nation can get this sort of very demanding engineering right, it is the Germans. So...maybe...one day....

And this fits Germany's energy strategy of course, now that they have decided against fission, so there will be political will behind the project, which is important when funds are tight.

 

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What about this story is "a step closer to nuclear fusion"? This looks like it is several steps further from fusion than what has already been achieved to me.

 

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Yes, my first reaction too. Maybe what it really should be is a first step along an alternative path to fusion.

 

Just a figurative speech. It's good to see any progress in today's world.

Anyway, here's more about that "step" from the mouth of Thomas Klinger, Director at the IPP, who gave some explanations about the special features of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator and its structure, and the prospects for the construction of a fusion power plant.
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-plasma-physicist-discusses-wendelstein-x.html

 

Meanwhile, physicists in China have announced that their own nuclear fusion machine, called the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), just smashed Germany's hydrogen plasma record by producing hydrogen plasma at 49.999 million degrees Celsius, and held onto it for an impressive 102 seconds.

http://www.sciencealert.com/china-s...just-smashed-germany-s-hydrogen-plasma-record

 

Some more news regarding nuclear fusion progress. New finding by MIT researchers may explain heat loss in fusion reactors.
Physicists for more than a decade have expected that turbulence from ions, atoms with an electric change, would simply flatten out the turbulence caused by electrons inside the reactor. Even if any turbulence from the electrons remain, the fact that two orders of magnitude exists between the two was expected to render any effects negligible.
The findings of these experiments showed that, despite being on differing scales, not only were the turbulence associated from electrons present but the two forms of turbulence were strongly interacting with each other.

http://news.mit.edu/2016/heat-loss-fusion-reactors-0121

 

Here's an interesting interview with Atomic Energy Authority head Steve Cowley who talks tokamaks, tritium, and the tantalizing prospect of enough power for a billion years. He says "we’re so close (to nuclear fusion) we can taste it".
https://howwegettonext.com/uk-fusion-chief-we-re-so-close-we-can-taste-it-8887e7bad420#.wxulrudue

 

i recently came across something stating of a four neutron particle-- i did not read it just seen the headline-- kind of interesting.

 

Does the plasma float freely in a magnetic field? how do they avoid the temperture of it from thermally heating it's surroundings causing a meltdown?

 

A plasma is diamagnetic - moves into the lowest field region it can. If fully ionized it is a poor absorber and poor emitter of radiator so does not have an intense radiative transport of energy to the walls; but if some hits the walls, and blasts off high atomic number atoms, like iron, only a relative few, they will "quench" the plasma with their bound state radiative transitions. (Mainly x-rays, from the inner shells.)

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the plasma repels the magnet field. In the early days this was how it escaped confinement. - Pried apart the field lines and slipped out to the lower field region outside. Now all fusion confinement machines have the field line directions twisted - pointing differently with increasing distance from the center of the plasma so the plasma can not just slip between parallel field lines.

 

True on TWO levels. Plus the added bonus of the experiment being able to be verified by the same scientist.