India Achieves Major Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion Research by Confining Plasma in SST-1 Tokamak

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India plasma research centre promises sun-like energy​

21 April 2015
By Rebecca Northfield

The Sun: toasty​

A research institute in India claims to have confined plasma, which could mean a major breakthrough in energy generation.

Researchers at the Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat say they have successfully confined the fourth state of matter in a Steady State Super Conducting Tokamak (SST-1), a development similar to making sun-like energy in a controlled environment.

The Sun, which is Earth's most vital source of energy, is a flawless spherical ball of hot plasma with internal convective motion and generates a magnetic field like a dynamo process.

IPR conducted a fusion experiment by heating the plasma inside a Tokamak, which in turn was used to restrict the plasma by generating a magnetic field.

The Institute's director, Dhiraj Bora, said: “We have got a breakthrough in confining plasma many times during our experiments. We have produced and confined the high temperature plasma from hydrogen with the help of superconducting magnets inside the machine [Tokamak].

“It is similar to creating sun-like energy inside a laboratory.”

A microwave current is passed to keep the plasma hot and to confine it inside a Tokamak, Mr Bora said.

He added that a current of the order of 70,000A is passed and plasma is heated to 200 to 300 million degrees. In such process, the plasma gets confined inside the Tokamak and through that heat energy can be generated.

According to Mr Bora, the group would like to heat plasma further and therefore make it possible to confine it for longer periods of time. In theory, the heat could be extracted in the form of energy and be connected to turbines.

He said: “Confining plasma is necessary for creating such an environment to simulate conditions for fusion reactions, similar to which takes place inside the Sun.

“About 5000 MW of thermal power can be produced by using just 50 MW of electricity.”

The IPR is an autonomous physics research institute that has been involved in experiments such as the Tokamak and confining plasma for about 25 years.

Source:- Индийские ученые создали искусственное Солнце | Информационно-справочный портал Беларуси - interfax.by
India plasma research centre promises sun-like energy - E & T Magazine
Indian Researchers Succeeded Confining Plasma In Tokamak (SST-1) - WordlyPost
Scientists hope to create sun-like energy by confining plasma | Business Standard News

 

[gslv mk3]

We are already a part of ITER..!

 

[HariPrasad]

This is excellent. Success in this type of Expirements shall solve the Problem of energy for ever.

 

[fenku]

Good news...congrats to our scientist

 

[RAMPAGE]

Hope it is true.

 

[Dr. Sen]

India will build fusion reactor seperately in India too:

India Plans To Build Nuke-Fusion Reactor | InSerbia News

 

[kaykay]

Congrats.

 

[Kinetic]

Congrats to Indian scientists. Hope govt provides all kinds of support to this project.

@Chanakya's_Chant can you please provide us with some pics?

 

[gslv]

Still I think thorium reactors are way to go than fusion reactors. Thorium produces negligible amount of radioactive waste than conventional reactors and feasible according to current technology.

@Chanakya's_Chant, is thorium reactor economically feasible or we are yet to get there.

 

[SrNair]

Another milestone from Indian scientists.

 

[gslv mk3]

Hope it is true.

Hope ?

 

[deckingraj]

Still I think thorium reactors are way to go than fusion reactors. Thorium produces negligible amount of radioactive waste than conventional reactors and feasible according to current technology.

plus we have good thorium reserves as well ranging from 25-30% of worlds known reserves...

 

[indianBong]

congos to the scientist.... there hard working payed.....

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Still I think thorium reactors are way to go than fusion reactors. Thorium produces negligible amount of radioactive waste than conventional reactors and feasible according to current technology.

@Chanakya's_Chant, is thorium reactor economically feasible or we are yet to get there.

Controlled nuclear fusion for commercial energy production isn't possible in the near future. We have just taken some baby steps towards it - The first commercial demonstration fusion power plant, named DEMO, which is proposed to follow on from the ITER project will start its first phase of operation not before 2033.

Whereas much has achieved concerning commercial energy production from Thorium power plants. Thorium reactors are pretty much both economically feasible as well a super-safe in terms of operation - One ton of Thorium can produce same energy as 200 tons of Uranium, or 3,500,000 tons of coal and India has the largest Thorium reserves in the world amounting to 846,000 tons.

A “super-safe” nuclear reactor because it does not require any external water or electricity for a month for cooling the red hot core in case of an accident - It would also mean there is much less danger from a meltdown - the thorium plant won't use a material that can be weaponised. Thorium is also more abundant than uranium so it will be cheaper and easier to supply.

Our AHWR has been designed to tackle simultaneous extreme events like station black out, multiple system black out, loss of coolant, reactor temperature crossing 1,000 degrees Celsius in the absence of cooling and core meltdown. Essentially, it can handle an accident without any external help. The water storage is enough for one month. No electricity is needed to run the pumps as the heat is taken out naturally. The safety analysis of AHWR has identified an exhaustive list of 55 causes of accidents, which are unlikely to cause any disruption in the functioning of this futuristic nuclear power plant.

The construction on our first 300 MW prototype AHWR is scheduled to start in 2016 - Later, the first megawatt of electricity would be be generated by 2025. Though our first indigenously designed 500 MW prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam will be operation by September this year - it would be a major milestone as well - (A fast breeder reactor is one that breeds more material for a nuclear fission reaction than it consumes. The PFBR will be fueled by a blend of plutonium and uranium oxide, called MOX fuel.)

 

[SR-91]

On topic experiment,

A little experiment, for those who wants to make plasma at home..
You can create plasma from grapes, cut a grape in half, but don't cut all the way thru. Cut enough that the skin on the other side is attached. Dry the grape with a tissue, then peal a skin off another grape, dry it and place it on top of the first grape. Make sure it's dry.
Now the fun part, place the grape in a microwave n turn it on for 20 second.
Watch small bursts of plasma come out.

Very cool.

U wanna control the plasma, place a thin plastic container on top of grape. Its plasma, it will burn a hole in the container, it will have a smell to it with or without container.

Go ahead amaze urself.