Part 1 of 2 Parts
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 as an autonomous organization within the United Nations system; though governed by its own founding treaty, the organization reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations, and is headquartered at the UN Office at Vienna, Austria.
The first experiments focused on nuclear fusion took place in the 1950s. Over the following decades, creating sustained nuclear fusion has been a great challenge for scientists and engineers. Currently, new discoveries are being made on an almost daily basis. The virtually limitless energy possible with controlled nuclear fusion should be unleashed in the near future.
Over the decades of research on fusion a number of different basic designs have been developed and constructed. These designs include tokamaks, stellarators and laser-based implosion devices. They are advancing the promise of nuclear fusion for energy generation that will transform our world.
There are currently over one hundred and thirty experimental public and private fusion devices in operation, in construction or planned around the globe. These are based on a number of different approaches to producing fusion reactions and have a variety of designs.
In order to review this multitude of devices, the IAEA has just published a new report titled World Survey of Fusion Devices 2022. This new survey further elaborates the information currently available on the IAEA’s online database called Fusion Device Information system (FusDIS).
Matteo Barbarino is an IAEA Nuclear Plasma Fusion Specialist. He said, “When it is realized, fusion would benefit every country and work alongside nuclear energy and other forms of sustainable energy, supporting climate change mitigation and contributing to the energy mix. Fusion could benefit virtually every country and that is one of the reasons why it is so important. All over the world, researchers and engineers are exploring different fusion device designs to move progress forward. And our new publication provides a comprehensive overview of fusion research and development activities from the perspective of those devices capabilities.”
Nuclear fusion is a process in which light atomic nuclei combine to form the nucleus of a heavier element. A huge amount of energy is release by this process. The stars in the sky burn for billions of years powered by nuclear fusion. However, achieving sustained and controlled fusion reactions in a practical setting on the surface of the Earth is associated with a large number of scientific and technical challenges. To sustain such a reaction, the fuel must be confined and maintained at intense pressures and extremely high temperatures several times hotter than the center of the Sun.
Considerable progress continues to be made in laboratories all over the world. More than thirty countries have carried out experiments with different fusion devices. The researchers often successfully achieve fusion reactions. However, they can only sustain operation for short periods of time. None of the experiments to date have been able to generate useful amounts of energy.
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