How does a tokamak generate electricity?
Inside a tokamak, the energy produced through the fusion of atoms is absorbed as heat in the walls of the vessel. Just like a conventional power plant, a fusion power plant will use this heat to produce steam and then electricity by way of turbines and generators. (Scroll down for more about the tokamak.)
What is a tokamak reactor and how does it work?
A tokamak (/ˈtoʊkəmæk/; Russian: токамáк) is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices being developed to produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power.
How is tokamak used?
tokamak, Device used in nuclear-fusion research for magnetic confinement of plasma. It consists of a complex system of magnetic fields that confine the plasma of reactive charged particles in a hollow, doughnut-shaped container.
How does an ITER work?
ITER is designed to produce a ten-fold return on energy (Q=10), or 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of input heating power. ITER will not capture the energy it produces as electricity, but—as first of all fusion experiments in history to produce net energy gain—it will prepare the way for the machine that can.
Is plasma a nuclear?
At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and a gas becomes a plasma—an ionized state of matter similar to a gas. Composed of charged particles (positive nuclei and negative electrons), plasmas are very tenuous environments, nearly one million times less dense than the air we breathe.
How does the tokamak not melt?
Fusion powers the sun by forcing hydrogen atoms to combine into helium and releasing enormous amounts of energy. A tokamak uses strong magnetic fields to confine a plasma that is heated above 200 million ℃, maximizing the efficiency of hydrogen isotope fusion.
How does a tokamak not melt?
How hot do tokamaks get?
150 million degrees Celsius
The temperatures inside the ITER Tokamak must reach 150 million degrees Celsius—or ten times the temperature at the core of the Sun—in order for the gas in the vacuum chamber to reach the plasma state and for the fusion reaction to occur.
Who made the first tokamak?
Andrei Sakharov
Igor TammLev ArtsimovichNatan Yavlinsky
Tokamak/Inventors
How much energy does a tokamak produce?
Tokamak Facts The central solenoid used for the ITER tokamak will be the largest superconducting magnet ever built, producing a field of 13 tesla, which is equivalent to 280,000 times the magnetic field of the Earth.
Will ITER be successful?
Although the successful operation of ITER, still more than 6 years away, will be considered a major breakthrough for fusion energy, the new road map from the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) includes a daunting list of the technical hurdles that fusion scientists and engineers still face over the next few …
Is ITER a failure?
This, together with our incomplete knowledge of what to expect in the thermonuclear regime, makes ITER a risky project, whose failure could cause irreparable harm to the credibility of nuclear fusion.
What is a tokamak and how does it work?
A tokamak is based around a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber called a torus, within which gaseous hydrogen fuel is subjected to extreme heat and pressure until it becomes plasma, an electrically charged, hot gas. Plasma is also found in the core of stars and is the environment that allows light elements to fuse and release energy.
What is the safety factor in a tokamak?
It was the development of the concept now known as the safety factor (labelled q in mathematical notation) that guided tokamak development; by arranging the reactor so this critical factor q was always greater than 1, the tokamaks strongly suppressed the instabilities which plagued earlier designs.
What is the maximum power output of a tokamak?
As of 2020 , JET remains the record holder for fusion output, reaching 16 MW of output for 24 MW of input heating power. The word tokamak is a transliteration of the Russian word токамак, an acronym of either: to roidal cham ber with ax ial magnetic field.
When was the first tokamak made?
The first tokamak, T-1, began operation in Russia in 1958. Subsequent advances led to the construction of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Joint European Torus in England, both of which achieved record fusion power in the 1990s.