France tops China’s tokamak record with 22-minute plasma containment run.
France’s Commissariat à L'énergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives on Tuesday claimed it’s topped China’s recently-established for record maintaining fusion plasma in a tokamak, and therefore taken another step towards building a fusion reactor capable of producing cheap energy.
#Sevilla 
Jan 22, 2025 : An achievement that takes us closer to generating #clean and #limitless #energy 
using #NuclearFusion. Negative triangularity can help reduce damage to the #tokamak wall, which is a concern in fusion reactors. https://interestingengineering.com/energy/smart-fusion-reactor-first-plasma
#Cadarache Feb 19, 2025 Nuclear fusion world record for plasma duration https://phys.org/news/2025-02-nuclear-fusion-west-machine-world.html
#tokamak #fusion #nuclearfusion #science #tokamakenergy #uk #power #greenenergy
I’ve been following the breakthroughs at Tokamak for a long time, and they’re inching closer to success every year. They’ve demonstrated a scaled down concept of something they have faith in, and if the government invests more money into the company I definitely won’t complain. Fusion’s the ultimate goal, and maybe Musk’s $44bn would have been better spent on nuclear investment than Twitter.
the desire to tech-fix structural problems is so depressing.
I get it. Scientists are nerds, and if you have the luck that your field of research receives billions of funding, who are you to say no?
But the policy makers responsible for the allocation of these funds... don't these people, like... inform themselves?
Even IF fusion reactors could be developed in a reasonable timespan (and the billions required for research would not just diverti much needed investments into clean and decentralized energy):
A lot of energy is by no means a solution to the transgression of the multiple planetary boundaries (nor does it help against the rise of fascism we are experiencing).
So, I let you here with this nice figure, you all can draw your own conclusions.
Is the dream of nuclear fusion dead?
Why the international experimental reactor is in ‘big trouble’
It was a project that promised the sun.
Researchers would use the world’s most advanced technology to design a machine that could generate atomic fusion,
the process that drives the stars
– and so create a source of cheap, non-polluting power.
That was initially the aim of the 
️International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ️
( #Iter ) which 35 countries
– including European states, China, Russia and the US
– agreed to build at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance in southern France
at a starting cost of $6bn.
Work began in 2010, with a commitment that there would be energy-producing reactions by 2020.
Then cost overruns, Covid, corrosion of key parts, last-minute redesigns and confrontations with nuclear safety officials triggered delays that
mean #Iter is not going to be ready for another decade,
it has just been announced.
Worse, energy-producing fusion reactions will not be generated until 2039, while Iter’s budget
– which has already soared to $20bn
– will increase by a further $5bn.
Other estimates suggest the final price tag could rise well above this figure
and make Iter
“the most delayed and most cost-inflated science project in history”,
the journal Scientific American has warned.
For its part, the journal Science has stated simply that Iter is now in “big trouble”,
while Nature has noted that the project has been “plagued by a string of hold-ups, cost overruns and management issues”.
Dozens of private companies now threaten to create fusion reactors on a shorter timescale, warn scientists.
These include #Tokamak #Energy in Oxford
and #Commonwealth #Fusion #Systems in the US.
“The trouble is that Iter has been going on for such a long time, and suffered so many delays,
that the rest of the world has moved on,” said fusion expert Robbie Scott of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.
“A host of new technologies have emerged since Iter was planned. That has left the project with real problems
“Within the #tokamak, the magnets confine plasmas — a state of matter with large quantities of ionized particles — at 10 times the temperature of the sun.”
If this sounds like open rebellion against the laws of nature, the universe, and divine will, it’s cuz it is.
Yay?
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2024-05-24/general-atomics-tour
Two seconds of hope for fusion power - Enlarge / The interior or the DIII-D tokamak. (credit: General Atomics)... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=2021670 #nuclearphysics #fusionpower #science #physics #tokamak #fusion
Ancient Japanese Art Inspires Next-Gen Fusion Reactor Breakthrough
https://scitechdaily.com/ancient-japanese-art-inspires-next-gen-fusion-reactor-breakthrough/ #energy #fusion #reactor #tokamak #DOE #plasma #kintsugi #ErrorFields #ThatWasMyFavoriteCup
Nuclear fusion reactor in UK sets new world record for energy output
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/nuclear-energy/nuclear-fusion-reactor-in-uk-sets-new-world-record-for-energy-output #Nuclear #fusion #reactor #UK #NewWorldRecord #output #JET #tokamak
UK’s JET Tokamak Retires After 40 Years And 105,842 Pulses - The UK’s most famous fusion reactor – the Joint European Torus (JET) tokamak – saw... - https://hackaday.com/2023/12/23/uks-jet-tokamak-retires-after-40-years-and-105842-pulses/ #nuclearfusion #science #tokamak
Japan’s JT-60SA Generates First Plasma As World’s Largest Superconducting Tokamak Fusion Reactor - Comparison of toroidal field (TF) coils from JET, JT-60SA and ITER (Credit: QST)
J... - https://hackaday.com/2023/12/06/japans-jt-60sa-generates-first-plasma-as-worlds-largest-superconducting-tokamak-fusion-reactor/ #nuclearfusion #science #tokamak #fusion
Superconducting Tape Leads To A Smaller Tokamak - Attempts to make a viable nuclear fusion reactor have on the whole been the domain... - https://hackaday.com/2023/07/23/superconducting-tape-leads-to-a-smaller-tokamak/ #superconductor #nuclearfusion #science #tokamak
The UK’s ST40 Spherical Tokamak Achieves Crucial Plasma Temperatures - As the race towards the first commercially viable nuclear fusion reactor heats up,... - https://hackaday.com/2023/04/11/the-uks-st40-spherical-tokamak-achieves-crucial-plasma-temperatures/ #engineering #cleanengery #fusionpower #greenhacks #tokamak
One of the major challenges in achieving #Fusion is maintaining the high temperatures and pressures needed for the fusion reaction to take place. This requires the use of specialized equipment, such as #Tokamak reactors, which are designed to contain and control the #Plasma. Additionally, achieving a net gain of #Energy from fusion – that is, generating more energy from the reaction than was required to initiate it – has been a longstanding challenge in the field.
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