The Alcator C-Mod reactor creates a breakthrough on its last day.
The Alcator C-Mod reactor creates a breakthrough on its last day.
A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has set a world record for nuclear fusion. Using its Alcator C-Mod tokamak reactor, the scientists created the highest plasma pressure ever recorded, with a 16% increase over the previous record set in 2005. Unfortunately, the breakthrough was achieved on the last day of the MIT reactor’s operations, because its funding from the US Department of Energy has now ceased.
Nuclear fusion power has been the “holy grail” of clean energy ever since it was since theorized in the 1920s. By using the same process that powers the sun, nuclear fusion has the potential to power the world, but without the toxic radioactive waste generated by nuclear fission, and minus the CO2 emissions that cause global warming.
More research still needs to be done to make nuclear fusion a reality. The US, together with an international coalition, will now focus their funding into a sevenstory-high fusion reactor called ITER, which is located in the south of France and is expected to complete construction in 2019.
PICTURE BOB MUMGAARD/PLASMA SCIENCE AND FUSION CENTER.
