Fusion breakthrough will boost power output

Fusion breakthrough will boost power output
Dec. 4, 2008David Chandler, MIT News OfficeResearch carried out at MIT's Alcator C-Mod fusion reactor may have brought the promise of fusion as a future power source a bit closer to reality, though scientists caution that a practical fusion powerplant is still decades away.
Fusion, the reaction that produces the sun's energy, is thought to have enormous potential for future power generation because fusion plant operation produces no emissions, fuel sources are potentially abundant, and it produces relatively little (and short-lived) radioactive waste. But it still faces great hurdles."There's been a lot of progress," says physicist Earl Marmar, division head of the Alcator Project at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). "We're learning a lot more about the details of how these things work."The Alcator C-Mod reactor, in operation since 1993, has the highest magnetic field and the highest plasma pressure of any fusion reactor in the world, and is the largest fusion reactor operated by any university. READ MORE...

The story is also available in the Dec. 3, 2008, edition of MIT Tech Talk, http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/techtalk53-10.pdf

SOURCE: MIT