ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- Researchers at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and at FOM Institute for fundamental energy research DIFFER discovered that the same effect that causes wind vortices on the rotating Earth can help reach a better confinement of the plasma in a fusion reactor.
In his PhD research, Haverkort analysed the effect that rotation has on the stability of plasmas. In order to tame nuclear fusion and produce net energy from this process, the plasma in a reactor must be heated to over 100 million degrees.
No material can withstand those temperatures, so fusion researchers confine the plasma using strong magnetic fields. The plasma often rotates at appreciable speeds. Haverkort used advanced mathematical analyses and numerical simulations to determine the effect of different forms of rotation on the plasma stability.
One of Haverkort's results is that a specific form of rotation has a stabilising effect on the plasma. If the rotation decreases from the centre of the plasma towards the edge, the so-called Coriolis effect can stabilise instabilities in the plasma.
This effect bends the trajectory of objects moving in a rotating system. In our atmosphere, it causes streams of air to the north of the equator to veer in a different direction than air currents south of the equator. In a plasma, the stabilising effect helps reach a higher energy output and lowers the chance of disturbances in the fusion plasma.
Nuclear fusion has the potential to be a limitless, clean and safe form of energy. The road to fusion contains many scientific and technological challenges. In the international ITER project, to which Haverkort's research contributes, the EU, Japan, South Korea, China, India, the US and Russia work together to demonstrate the technical feasibility of fusion as an energy source.
The ITER reactor, currently under construction in Cadarache in France, will be operational in 2020.
(GL)
