{"id":178947,"date":"2023-12-23T15:25:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T21:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/fusion-power-may-run-out-of-fuel-before-it-even-gets-started"},"modified":"2023-12-23T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T21:25:51","slug":"fusion-power-may-run-out-of-fuel-before-it-even-gets-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/fusion-power-may-run-out-of-fuel-before-it-even-gets-started","title":{"rendered":"Fusion power may run out of fuel before it even gets started"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

For decades, achieving controlled fusion was a physics challenge. But now, as the ITER megaproject gears up to demonstrate fusion\u2019s potential as an energy source\u2014and startup companies race to beat it\u2014the practical roadblocks to fusion power plants are coming into focus. One is a looming shortage of tritium fuel. Others could prevent reactors from ever running reliably\u2014a necessity if fusion is to provide a constant \u201cbaseload\u201d to complement intermittent solar and wind power.<\/p>\n

Some of fusion\u2019s fitfulness is innate to the design of doughnut-shaped tokamak reactors. The magnetic field that confines the ultrahot, energy-producing plasma is generated in part by the charged particles themselves, as they flow around the vessel. That plasma current in turn is induced by pulses of electrical current in a coil of wire in the doughnut\u2019s hole, each lasting a few minutes at most. In between pulses the magnetic field ebbs, interrupting tokamak operations\u2014and power delivery. The repetitive starts and stops of the reactor\u2019s powerful magnetic fields also generate mechanical stresses that could eventually tear the machine apart.<\/p>\n

In theory, the beams of particles and microwaves used to heat the plasma can also drive the plasma current. So can a quirk of plasma physics called the bootstrap effect. Near the edge of the plasma, a sharp pressure gradient causes the particles to spiral in such a way that they interfere with each other and push themselves\u2014by their own bootstraps\u2014around the ring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades, achieving controlled fusion was a physics challenge. But now, as the ITER megaproject gears up to demonstrate fusion\u2019s potential as an energy source\u2014and startup companies race to beat it\u2014the practical roadblocks to fusion power plants are coming into focus. One is a looming shortage of tritium fuel. Others could prevent reactors from ever [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-particle-physics","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}