The mini-reactor a nuclear fusion FuZE product of the US company Zap Energy managed to produce a plasma with a kinetic temperature above 10 million °Ccomparable to that in the core of the Sun. To be precise, as reported by the study on Physical Review LettersFuZE has reached temperatures around 37 million °C. It’s not the highest ever, but FuZE is the smallest device so far to have surpassed the 10 million °C mark.
The strength of this reactor is that, compared to more traditional techniques, it allows these results to be obtained more effectively simple and economical, since it requires neither superconducting magnets nor powerful lasers. In fact, FuZE first gives life to a plasma beam (called Z-pinch) and then electric current is made to flow inside it: as the current increases, so does the density and the temperature of the plasma, even managing to exceed 10 million degrees.
Obviously the great challenge of fusion still remains open, that is, being able to generate more energy than that required to activate the fusion process, and let’s keep in mind that these very high temperatures are certainly not a world record: there are reactors capable of even exceeding the 100 million degrees! Let’s talk for example about ITER, the huge French project under construction in Cadarache.
This is the comment to ANSA of Paola Batistoniresponsible for the fusion energy development division at ENEA:
The challenge, however, is not only to achieve the appropriate conditions for the nuclear fusion reaction but also to solve the technological problems and build all those components necessary to contain the power, extract it and convert it into electrical energy. Iter is already addressing these problems and is therefore at a much more advanced stage.
To learn more, here is a video on the technology behind the nuclear fusion:
