German scientists take big step towards clean source of energy

Physicists in Germany have used an experimental nuclear fusion device to produce hydrogen plasma in a process similar to what happens on the Sun. The test marks an important milestone on the road towards this super-futuristic source of cheap and clean nuclear energy.

Earlier today in an event attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (herself a PhD physicist), researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald turned on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, an experimental nuclear fusion reactor. (Actually, the researchers let Merkel do the honors.) This €400 million ($435 million) stellarator is being used by physicists to test the technical viability of a future fusion reactor.

“With a temperature of 80 million degrees and a lifetime of a quarter of a second, the device’s first hydrogen plasma has completely lived up to our expectations,” Hans-Stephan Bosch, whose division works on the Wendelstein 7-X, said the press release.

Following nine years of construction and testing, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald injected a tiny amount of hydrogen into a doughnut-shaped device—then zapped it with the equivalent of 6,000 microwave ovens.

The resulting super-hot gas, known as plasma, lasted just a fraction of a second before cooling down again, long enough for scientists to confidently declare the start of their experiment a success.

“Everything went well today,” said Robert Wolf, a senior scientist involvedwith the project. “With a system as complex as this you have to make sure everything works perfectly and there’s always a risk.

German chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to press the start bottom next to the head of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics Sibylle Guenter, left, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania governor, Erwin Sellering, right at the Wendelstein 7-X’ nuclear fusion research center at the Max-Planck-Institut for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany Wednesday Feb. 3, 2016. (Bernd Wuestneck/AP)

Why is Nuclear fusion power such a big deal?

The production of hydrogen plasma is key to harnessing the clean, limitless energy of nuclear fusion – the process that powers our Sun. If we can achieve controlled nuclear fusion, it would quite literally change the world, because it would replace fossil fuels and nuclear fission facilities as a cheaper, more efficient, and more sustainable source of energy. “

“It’s a very clean source of power, the cleanest you could possibly wish for. We’re not doing this for us, but for our children and grandchildren,” one of the team, physicist John Jelonnek from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, told the Associated Press.

Nuclear fission, which is what our current nuclear facilities achieve, generates energy by splitting the nucleus of an atom into smaller neutrons and nuclei. While fission is super efficient – the amount of energy it releases is millions of times more efficient per mass than that of coal – it requires very careful (and costly) management of dangerous radioactive waste.

Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, produces huge amounts of energy when atoms are fused together at incredibly high temperatures – but produces no radioactive waste or other unwanted byproducts.