{"id":29554,"date":"2016-08-31T11:46:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T18:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/star-in-a-jar-could-lead-to-limitless-fusion-energy"},"modified":"2017-06-04T14:19:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T21:19:20","slug":"star-in-a-jar-could-lead-to-limitless-fusion-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/star-in-a-jar-could-lead-to-limitless-fusion-energy","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Star in a jar\u2019 could lead to limitless fusion energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/star-in-a-jar-could-lead-to-limitless-fusion-energy.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display:none;\" class=\"\" title=\"NSTX-U Test Cell\" src=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/star-in-a-jar-could-lead-to-limitless-fusion-energy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"637\" height=\"378\"><b><center>A test cell for the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade with tokamak in the center. (credit: Elle Starkman\/PPPL Office of Communications)<\/center><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Physicists at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pppl.gov\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)<\/a> are building a \u201cstar in a jar\u201d \u2014 a miniature version of the how our Sun creates energy through fusion. It could provide humankind with near limitless energy, ending dependence on fossil fuels for generating electricity \u2014 without contributing greenhouse gases that warm the Earth, and with no long-term radioactive waste.<\/p>\n<p>But that requires a \u201cjar\u201d that can contain superhot plasma \u2014 and is low-cost enough to be built around the world. A model for such a \u201cjar,\u201d or fusion device, already exists in experimental form: the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tokamak\" target=\"_blank\">tokamak<\/a>, or fusion reactor. Invented in the 1950s by Soviet physicists, it\u2019s a device that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine <a title=\"Plasma (physics)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Plasma_%28physics%29\">plasma<\/a> (superhot charged gas) in the shape of a <a title=\"Torus\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Torus\">torus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/star-in-a-jar-could-lead-to-limitless-fusion-energy?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=201c6d3c84-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6de721fb33-201c6d3c84-281884789\">http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/star-in-a-jar-could-lead-to-limitl...;281884789<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A test cell for the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade with tokamak in the center. (credit: Elle Starkman\/PPPL Office of Communications) Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are building a \u201cstar in a jar\u201d \u2014 a miniature version of the how our Sun creates energy through fusion. It could [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,219,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29554","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\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66381,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29554\/revisions\/66381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}