IOP Groups
Fusion
Fusion power offers the potential of an almost limitless source of energy for future generations but also presents some formidable scientific and engineering challenges. It is based on the fusing of light nuclei (usually hydrogen isotopes) to release energy, a process similar to that which powers the sun and other stars. Effective energy production from fusion requires that the hydrogen plasma fuel is heated to very high temperatures (around 100 million kelvin or 10 keV) and confined for at least one second. One way to achieve these conditions is to use magnetic confinement. The most promising configuration at present is the tokamak, a Russian word for a torus-shaped magnetic chamber. Magnetic fusion research in the UK is carried out mainly at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire. The JET tokamak at Culham is Europe's flagship fusion experiment, operated by the UK on behalf of the European fusion community, and one of the two leading devices of this type in the world. There are also experiments in the UK's own domestic programme: the emphasis at present is on the MAST device. This is a "spherical" tokamak (resembling an apple with the core taken out, rather than a doughnut) with a cross-section area and plasma current comparable to those of medium-sized conventional tokamaks elsewhere in Europe and the USA.
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