42 
Oil and gas might be running out, but renewable power sucks so much it counts for less than 10 per cent of all the energy we use. The answer? Recreate the sun using nuclear fusion, in a sleepy corner of the UK.
No, really. Over the past few decades scientists and engineers have been scratching their heads over how to solve our energy problems using the process that powers stars. In fact, Europe’s biggest nuclear fusion device, the Joint European Torus (JET), is leading the way, and it’s hidden away in the tranquil Oxfordshire countryside. “In effect we’re making a miniature version of the sun in the laboratory,” explains Nick Holloway from JET. But how the hell do they do it, and when will it be powering our laptops?
To answer that, first a crash-course in nuclear physics using my love life as a metaphor. Much like many of my romantic encounters, fusion requires bringing together two objects that tend to repel each other. By joining two hydrogen nuclei, it’s possible to create a new helium nucleus, and simultaneously release serious amounts of energy. For some perspective, just 25g of hydrogen isotopes — the same weight as two iPod Shuffles — could produce enough electricity to last an average European a lifetime. Hear that, solar power?
The tricky bit, though, is getting those damned nuclei close enough to fuse, because they both have a positive charge which means they repel each other. The solution isn’t elegant, but it does work: throw enough heat at the hydrogen, and it becomes plasma — a hot soup of nuclei and electrons, with enough energy to overcome the repulsion. A bit like the lubricating role alcohol used to play in my romantic encounters. But, unlike my love life, the reaction needs to reach a scorching 100 million C to get going — which, if you’re wondering, is ten times hotter than the sun. So how on earth do they do that in a country where 20 degrees celsius is considered tropical?
It goes without saying that JET is a pretty serious piece of technology. In fact, imagine a gigantic, metal donut, and you’re not a million miles from what it looks like. And while it’s not as tasty as a Krispy Kreme, you can at least guarantee that it’s hot on the inside. Because this beryllium and tungsten donut, which has a radius of 3 metres and a total volume of 200 cubic metres, isn’t filled using jam, but a stream of high-energy hydrogen isotopes spewed straight out of a particle accelerator.
That ensures the contents are hotter than a jalapeño in a frying pan. So hot, in fact, that to stop poor old JET from melting, two massive magnetic fields are generated using a terrifying 5 million amps to keep the plasma away from the walls. But to really get going, the hydrogen isotopes still need an extra little kick, which is provided by a burst of concentrated electromagnetic waves. That tips the temperature of the plasma over the 100 million C mark and then… boom! Fusion!
Though, admittedly, quite short-lived fusion. Because while JET does get down to business 30 times a day, it only works in short bursts of 10 seconds at a time. So what gives? Why isn’t nuclear fusion boiling our kettles yet?
You see, the tricky bit about the whole process is getting out more energy than you put in and, so far, JET’s failed to break even. But, hey, don’t look so glum! Because while it’s not perfect, JET has convinced The Man that fusion is the future, and as a result has been the inspiration for a whole bunch of new facilities: the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France, the Lawrence Livermore Lab in California, and even one in North Korea. And that means that fusion might be powering our homes as soon as 2030.
To really wipe the floor and become our sole energy source, though, one of these fusion plants will need to reach ignition: the point at which the reaction is self-sustaining, just like the sun. So far, only one man-made device has ever achieved that, and it happens to be the hydrogen bomb. So keep on fusing guys, but please: stay safe.
Image Credit: JET
I worked as a programmer at JET for a year as part of my Comp Sci degree in 2009/10 any questions post them here and I’ll do my best to answer them. Some of the physics is a little beyond me but I know a fair amount about how it works
Wow, very impressive! Feel free to share any stories or information here, if you’d like — it’s really fascinating stuff.
That’s very kind but without a notification feature on Giz UK it makes little sense to ask anything. In fact, I’d be surprised if you even managed to read this reply.
be surprised! got the tab pinned and I’ll refresh it when ever i get a bit of time
The place is pretty fascinating and the reactor it’s self is really impressive to look at, I was lucky enough to be there during a shutdown (they were upgrading the tiles that line the inside of the torus) which meant I got to go into the reactor room which is usually sealed in by 3M of solid concrete the pictures don’t quite do the complexity of the machine justice!
One interesting fact is that that while pulsing the reactor makes up roughly 2% of the electricity demand for an average day in the UK in fact it uses so much (roughly 1.3GW if I recall) that the power can’t all be drawn from the grid at once instead they have two 750 tonne flywheels which they spin up with electric motors in between pulses. They then break the wheels to get the power they need all in one shot. The power demand is also why it’s located in Oxford just down the road from Didcot power station.
Fusion is indeed always 30 years away but I think they are getting closer the next stage in the research process is already being constructed in the south of France it’s called ITER and is going to be roughly 10 times the size of JET and should be able to pulse for 10 minutes at a time. The next step after ITER should be capable of producing power commercially it’s called DEMO.
If fusion is 30 years away, how did dr Octavius manage it so easily?
I think the answer is pretty obvious…. time travel!
I thought you were going to say, “sealed in by 3M sticky tape.” They should try scotch!
I know it’s not ideal not having reply notifications — we’re working on it though, and should be able to add it at some point!
How did you manage to overcome the lack of tritium? as far as i know the last known source was stolen by some madman with metal tentacles
well fortunately there’s a bunch of it in the little glow in the dark hands on people’s watches so they just sent a guy down to argos to get some cheap watches every time they ran out
I got excited about potentials of Fusion power back when I was at uni (2000) however one thing I read has always stuck with me: “The joke in the fusion energy community is that fusion is always 30 years away”.
Brian Cox did a special Horizon program on the BBC (BBC News artice) a couple of years ago and at the end he asked the worlds experts how long they thought it’d be before we’d have usable Fusion power. The predictions were particularly bleak with many forecasting around 2050!
I really like this sort of article and the way that Gizmodo UK is going – but are you guys having a competition to see how many bad metaphors you can fit into an article?
No?
Good article but just so you know, fusion isn’t a renewable energy source.
Sort of depends on how you define it. Technically, solar energy isn’t renewable, as eventually the sun is going to die out. And depending on whether we’re in a big crunch or ever-expanding situation, it’s possible nothing is renewable, ever. The term is generally used for when the energy output isn’t dependent on products which require millions of years to form. We’re unlikely to run through our entire supply of hydrogen with this program, as it’s very easy to use some of the energy for electrolysis of water. It’s as renewable as anything else where the products are the result of solar activity, wind turbines, etc.
It’s close though and a a lot closer to renewable than coal or gas.
Fuel wise the hydrogen isotopes needed (largely Deuterium and tritium) are naturally found in sea water and produced by current fission power plants.
Carbon footprint is pretty low (or should be once it gets going) and it doesn’t have the safety issues that fission power plants do either.
There’s enough deuterium to last forever and about 6000 years worth of Lithium to make tritium from. After that we’ll have to mine Helium 3 on the moon.
So yes, renewable.
“3 metres across and has a total volume of 200 cubic metres”
Am I being entirely thick, or would that suggets a “doughnut” 3 metres across and 28 metres high?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus reckons it has a radius of 3 metres, and a total volume of 100 cubic metres, which sounds a lot more reasonable.
So tell me, I know it’s hollywood.. but is the artificial sun-fusion thing from spiderman ever gonna be.. like.. real? I don’t mean in looks, but could we really have a miniature sun contained in a machine (that hopefully won’t suck half of new yorks cars into it and go supernova
)
No. The sun uses gravity to fusion possible. On earth we have to do the reaction at higher temperatures (like JET or MAST described above) or intense pressures using focused lasers like NIF in the states.
Did anybody else mistake the first photo for Lego?
There’s definitely something Lego-like about it, fo’ sho’
that’s some darn expensive lego though they’re made from beryllium and while I don’t remember the exact cost I’m fairly sure it was over £100 million
“…but renewable power sucks so much”
Seriously?
Just wanted to know, what kind of background the people working there are from ?
Mostly Physics and engineering (nuclear, electronic and alike) usually with multiple doctorates (so much so that they don’t allow people to put Dr. on their business cards as it’s pretty much a given).
There’s also a few computer scientists running the computer systems, databases and diagnostic tools which is why I was there.
they also take a large number of PhD Students interested in plasma physics there as well so that’s probably the best route in if you want to work there
This sounds like one of those machines designed to destroy the planet in the movies, you know the ones the villains would make in Batman or Superman type of movies…
it’s actually remarkably safe the plasma inside the torus whilst ridiculously hot is also very unstable if it were to break out of the containing magnetic field all the energy would dissipate within the machine – it would damage the containing wall but not much else
do you know what the containing wall is made out of?
Great to see Jet getting some news.
Im from just outside JET, about 5 mins. And have had family work there.
Thumbs up for JET.
Its all about MAST. MAST could kick JETs ass (if it wasn’t smaller).
I seem to remember Spiderman 2 trying this.
It didn’t end well. :/