This giant machine can solve the world’s energy problems – Dagbladet.no

(Dagbladet): After 1.1 million hours worked, was the world’s largest fusion reactor completed in Germany last year. Now, after more than a year of tests at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, the machine is almost ready to use.

It can happen at the end of this month, writes Science.

The reactor called W7-X. It is over 15 meters in diameter and took 19 years to complete.

– Huge potential

Rather than splitting atoms, as today’s nuclear reactors, they merged. This means that they fuse together and form energy, explains Nils Bohmer, nuclear expert and managing director of Bellona. This is reminiscent of the processes occurring on the sun.

– This gives a very large energy potential. If you get such a machine to work, will largely have solved the energy problems of the world. It is certainly the theory indicates, says Bohmer Dagbladet.

This type of equipment is very difficult to build. Only a few similar fusion reactors have been built, and few of these have once again been completed.

– They’ve been doing fusion reactors for a long time. The main problem is that it takes a high temperature and high pressure simultaneously. They should have temperatures higher than that of the sun. Obviously it requires a lot of technology, said Bohmer.

Available after 2050

In France progress at the moment an international research project with a fusion reactor, but this is the type that in technical terms is called “totomak» . There are over 30 such machines in the world currently. The problem with these is that they require more energy than they produce.

– The German machine is better in some areas, but I think it takes a while before both these machines are functional. It is hoped that they become commercially available sometime between 2050 and 2100, says Nils Bohmer.

– I do not think the German machine necessarily accelerate the revolution, but energipotensialtet is very large when you get this to work. This will be revolutionary when looking at energy production, he said.

Eco

In addition to that energipotensialtet is large, it seems that the environmental impact is relatively small. It will for example be nearly the same waste problems at traditional nuclear power plants.

– One thing, however, to achieve this in a small period of time in a small scale. It’s quite another to get this to work over time and become a stable, commercial electricity supplier. Therefore, the technology will probably not be available until 2050, said Bohmer.

– But suddenly something happens that one gets a very different development.