Fusion researchers will soon have a tungsten dossier that provides complex datasets about the shiny, silvery-white heavy metal thanks to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The experts there have embarked on a five-year mission to explore the metal's potential as a wall material in "next-step fusion devices," including the impressive tokamak at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France.
"The new project would work on understanding the behavior of tungsten ions in fusion plasmas to mitigate risks," Interesting Engineering's Prabhat Ranjan Mishra wrote about the effort.
At issue is sustainably harnessing powerful fusion reactions that have the potential to provide nearly limitless air pollution-free electricity. Fusion slams two atoms together, creating a heavier one, along with energy and little radioactive waste. Fission, the reaction that powers the country's 54 nuclear plants, splits atoms. This process creates long-lasting nuclear waste and just short of 19% of America's power, all per government data.
The nuclear waste and rare yet well-publicized meltdowns are fission's main hurdles. Also, physicist Amory Lovins told The Cool Down that it's a prohibitively expensive energy source to develop, encouraging solar or wind instead. Lovins is the co-founder of the Colorado-based energy think tank RMI.
Tungsten has superb thermal and mechanical properties to serve as a boundary material in fusion reactors such as tokamaks. It has the highest melting point of all metals, according to the IAEA. Doughnut-shaped tokamaks are being studied at labs around the world and use magnets, plasma, and extreme sunlike temperatures to implement fusion reactions.
The experts intend to sleuth out why tungsten erodes during the process, hurting stability and performance, along with a load of other metrics about what could be a prime plasma-facing material, according to an IAEA news release.
"Researchers have stressed that plasma-facing materials are subjected to the multi-field coupling effect of thermal shock and multiple radiations, which requires tungsten-based materials to have not only good mechanical properties but also a certain resistance to irradiation," Mishra wrote in IE.
Fusion has been dubbed by some experts as "holy grail" energy tech, capable of transforming our electricity supply. Tungsten walls and strategically placed lithium vapor "caves" are among the odd solutions experts are developing to maintain the fascinating process, with the goal of producing more energy than is needed to create the reactions, as noted by the U.S. Energy Department.
If successful, the abundant power would come free of heat-trapping air pollution, which is a fossil fuel burden that is already linked by NASA to increased risks for severe weather, including wildfires and coastal storms. It's a problem being realized outside disaster zones through rising insurance costs as well.
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"These results will directly support the operation of future fusion reactors using tungsten-based plasma-facing components," per the IAEA release.
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