Lifeboat Foundation

Tokamak Energy.

The world needs abundant, clean energy. Nuclear fusion — with no CO₂ emissions, no risk of meltdown and no long-lived radioactive waste — is the obvious solution, but it is very hard to achieve.

The challenge is that fusion only happens in stars, where the huge gravitational force creates pressures and temperatures so intense that usually repulsive particles will collide and fuse; hence “fusion”. On Earth we need to create similar conditions, holding a hot, electrically-charged plasma at high enough pressure for long enough for fusion reactions to occur. The scientific and engineering challenges behind putting a star in a box are large, to say the least. Without proper confinement of the plasma, the reaction would stop. The plasma must be isolated from the walls of the reactor — a feat that can be performed most effectively by magnets. The most advanced machine for this purpose is the ‘tokamak’.

Continue reading “Engineering Fusion Energy By 2025” »

This story may sound like the plot of a science-fiction movie.

Next year, a team of top scientists will hunker down inside a classified facility in the Nevada desert so they can experiment with a piece of advanced technology.

The test will focus on a small nuclear reactor and if it works as planned, it could be a huge step toward putting humans on Mars.

Continue reading “I-Team: Nuclear reactor test in Nevada could make a Mars trip reality” »

We are closer than ever to a world of unlimited energy.

Scientists create the highest plasma pressure ever recorded with the Alcator C-Mod reactor in a breakthrough for clean energy technology.

In Brief:

• MIT researchers using the Alcator C-Mod reactor have achieved a new nuclear fusion pressure record of more than 2 atmospheres of pressure.
• The Alcator C-Mod is set to retire after over 23 years of use but its nuclear fusion experiments have brought us closer to nearly unlimited clean energy.

Physicists on the Borexino neutrino experiment at Italian physics laboratory INFN in Gran Sasso announced in Nature that they have detected neutrinos produced deep inside the sun.

Neutrinos, which constantly stream through us, interact very rarely with other matter. When created in nuclear reactions inside the sun, they fly through dense solar matter in seconds and can reach the Earth in eight minutes.

In Brief:

Researchers have proposed an alternative way to generate super-strong magnetic fields that would solve the hindrances keeping us from harnessing the Faraday effect to its full use. More research and experimentation are needed to test the method.

Continue reading “Physicists Propose A Way to Make Magnetic Fields That Are Stronger Than Any on Earth” »

That’s why researchers are hard at work on ways to make spacecraft power systems more efficient, resilient and long-lasting.

“NASA needs reliable long-term power systems to advance exploration of the solar system,” said Jean-Pierre Fleurial, supervisor for the thermal energy conversion research and advancement group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “This is particularly important for the outer planets, where the intensity of sunlight is only a few percent as strong as it is in Earth orbit.”

Continue reading “No extension cord is long enough to reach another planet, and there’s no spacecraft charging station along the way” »

China is developing the world’s smallest nuclear power plant which could be installed in one of the islands in the disputed South China Sea to supply power to households and is capable of running for up to decades without refuelling, a media report said on Tuesday.

Modelled on the compact lead-cooled thermal reactor used by the navy of the former Soviet Union in its nuclear submarines in the 1970s, Chinese researchers are carrying out intensive work to develop “portable nuclear battery pack” within five years, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Earlier, the official media reports said China will soon start assembling floating maritime nuclear power platforms.

Continue reading “China developing world’s smallest nuclear reactor for South China sea islands: report” »

A supersonic airliner that flies at three times the speed of sound – and runs on nuclear fusion. Stephen Dowling investigates the challenges of making airliners run on atomic power.