Researchers in Korea have made a massive discovery that could change the way we approach nuclear fusion and our understanding of the universe.
According to Interesting Engineering, scientists at Seoul National University’s Department of Nuclear Engineering, led by Hwang Yong-Seok, PhD, have discovered that microscopic magnetic turbulence can cause magnetic reconnection, which causes a cascade effect that reorganizes plasma on a macroscopic scale. In other words, it is the first experimental confirmation of multiscale coupling in plasma.
Plasma is a fourth state of matter separate from solids, liquids, and gases. As the news source detailed, it is a superheated, ionized gas made up of positively charged atomic nuclei and free-moving electrons, and it is an essential part of the process of nuclear fusion. Plasma allows the nuclei to overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse, thereby releasing massive amounts of energy, per Interesting Engineering.
However, one of the big risks involved in fusion is flaring, when energy shoots out from the primary source of plasma and can cause serious damage in a reactor setting.
The experiment showed that microscopic events can set off large-scale structural changes in the plasma, helping researchers understand magnetic reconnection, which is the phenomenon behind things like solar flares, according to the news source. The breakthrough could help to further stabilize fusion reactors and push fusion research forward, as well as reshape our understanding of how stars work.
If researchers are able to scale fusion technology, it can provide significant amounts of affordable energy without the risks of harmful pollution that comes from burning coal, oil, or natural gas, and with far less nuclear waste than one might see with a traditional fission reactor.
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The promise of fusion is immense; it’s why countries like Great Britain have fast-tracked research on it. China’s “portable sun” fusion reactor is making massive strides in fusion technology as well, and researchers may have found a way to contain the massive amounts of energy produced in fusion reactions.
“This outcome was only possible through countless discussions and debates between experts in fusion and theoretical physics, who started from different interests but ultimately arrived at common ground,” Park Jong-Yoon, PhD, an assistant professor at the university, said, per Interesting Engineering.
Fusion is the next big energy frontier. Companies and nations alike are pouring money into researching it to find a way to make it viable as a source of massive amounts of clean energy. While the technology is still in its infancy, more and more breakthroughs are pushing that technology closer and closer to viability.
“We hope this research will not only expand the framework of interpretation in plasma physics but also serve as a foundation for the development of new fusion technologies,” Yoon Young Dae, a theoretical physicist at the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics and co-researcher on the project, said, per Interesting Engineering.
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