The process of hurling hydrogen atoms at each other to create extremely hot plasma — also known as nuclear fusion — holds massive potential for filling humankind's energy supply.
The tricky part is making the technology efficient enough for commercial use, and serious scientific challenges remain. Yet one research team's recent experiment moved the goalposts closer using the stellarator reactor at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany, according to Live Science.
The key difference was in the design of this reactor. Intended to mimic what happens inside the sun, it uses strong magnets placed outside the main chamber to control the high-energy plasma inside. This structure differs from other reactors that pass electrical currents through the chamber to create a magnetic field, Live Science explained.
With the addition of a new method for firing hydrogen into the stellarator reactor, the design set a new record for sustaining high levels of plasma temperature, density, and time. These metrics are known as the "triple product" in the industry and are a key marker of progress.
As Live Science reported, the reactor was also able to produce more total energy through nuclear fusion, and for longer. Its peak output was 1.8 gigajoules, which broke its own record and those of reactors around the world. Plus, it was all created using hydrogen, a resource that is essentially limitless and that adds zero pollution to the atmosphere.
Granted, that amount of energy is roughly equal to filling up a single mid-sized car's gas tank, which is, as you can imagine, much less than the energy required to run the reaction in the first place. Yet the stellarator's record-high triple product and energy output are promising results in the effort to someday tip those scales.
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In the meantime, other clean energy sources like solar, wind, and fission — the other kind of nuclear energy already used in nuclear power plants — are helping clean up humanity's energy supply.
The potential of adding fusion to the mix would mean even more cities, businesses, and people can say goodbye to expensive, dirty, and labor-intensive energy sources, and take advantage of the lower power bills and cleaner air that come hand in hand with cleaner energy.
"The records of this experimental campaign … represent a significant step forward in validating the stellarator concept — made possible through outstanding international collaboration," Robert Wolf, head of stellarator heating and optimization at the IPP, said in a statement.
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