The fusion furnace has a magnetic field 100,000 times stronger

The fusion reactor has a magnetic field 100,000 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field that will provide clean energy for humans because of very low radiation levels.

The ITER reactor has a 100,000-strong magnetic field

People are currently only exploiting the energy from fission nuclear reactions . This is the reaction to break a heavy nucleus such as uranium, thorium or plutonium into lighter nuclei and release energy. This reaction is used in operating nuclear power plants. However, the excess product after the reaction is very toxic radioactive substances.

Section drawing illustrating ITER reactor.(Photo: ITER Corporation)

In contrast to it is the fusion reaction, combining two light nuclei into a heavier nucleus and releasing energy. This is clean, safe energy, radioactive waste is very low and there is no risk of accidents.

However, in order for the reaction to occur, the temperature is very high. With the most probable fusion reaction, combining two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium to form helium also requires temperatures of up to 120 million degrees Celsius, many times higher than the temperature in the Sun core.

At that temperature, all matter exists in a plasma state. Keeping the fuel for the plasma reactor in a long enough time for the fusion reaction to occur is a difficult problem.

According to Business Insider, the ITER reactor, under construction at Cadarache, in the south of France, will address the above problems. ITER has a strong magnetic field of 5 Tesla, 100,000 times more than the Earth's magnetic field, emitted from 100,000 km of superconducting wire made of niobium-tin alloy at a temperature of -269 ° C.

This temperature is obtained by placing the entire system in liquid helium . Thanks to this magnetic field, the plasma will be "confined" long enough for the fusion reaction to occur. The reactor has a capacity of 840 m3 of plasma.

In order to operate the reactor, it must first have a high enough temperature to bring the fuel to the plasma state and stimulate the fusion reaction. This is done by an external heating system with a capacity of 50MW.

After the fusion reaction occurs, the energy of the generated helium nuclei will be enough to maintain the high temperatures needed for plasma states and generation. At this time, it is possible to shut down the external heat supply system, the reactor will maintain itself on condition that it provides enough nuclear fuel .

The ITER project costs about $ 20 billion, the largest science project on the planet. It is expected that by 2020 it will be possible to create plasma fuel. If the experiments are successful, by 2030 it will be possible to build the first fusion power plant with a capacity of about 1GW.