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Nuclear Fusion Physics: The First Nuclear Fusion

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History of the Technology The first Nuclear fusion theory was proposed in 1920, by Arthur Eddington. He proposed that the energy release by the fusion of small nuclei would provide large amounts of energy. In 1950, the tokamak was proposed by Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm. The Tokamak was an experimental machine that used fusion to generate energy. In 1973, the development of the JET began. The JETis a physics experiment that was theorized to be a renewable energy source by using nuclear fusion. The energy is produced by the walls of the Tokamak which absorbs the heat from the fusion of atom. After, the heat is used to produce steam and then it is converted into electricity using turbines or generators. The Joint European Torus or …show more content…

Current nuclear fusion reactors are horrendously inefficient and requires a massive amount of energy to start up and once started we are unable to harness the energy that is released using current materials and technology, yielding a net loss of energy. The way we harness energy from most of our energy sources today is to heat water and create steam. That steam is then used to spin a turbine converting the thermal energy into kinetic energy which is easily converted into electrical energy using a large generator. It is difficult to apply this to fusion energy as the plasma from the fusion reaction is at a temperature of approximately 150 million degrees celsius and would vaporize nearly anything that it would come into contact with, this would make the current system of a heat exchanger not …show more content…

The first problem facing the concept of a diverter, is that currently we do not have any materials that would hold up to the temperature and forces required of it. Humans would need to make a breakthrough in material science and develop a material that has a higher melting point than that of the materials of today while simultaneously being an excellent conductor of heat. The second problem facing this concept is a reliable way of controlling the plasma. Currently it is fairly difficult to control the plasma reliably, and for a diverter to work we would need to be able to control it with pinpoint precision. If we do not have absolute precision the plasma would simply destroy the divertor or the diverter would not generate anything. To control it reliably we would need a breakthrough in more efficient and reliable magnets/superconductors, as well as better manufacturing techniques with greater

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