Mimicking the Fury of the Sun for the Ultimate Clean Energy Fusion Reactor

Mimicking the Fury of the Sun for the Ultimate Clean Energy Fusion Reactor

By E. Stanley Ukeni

Lately there seems to be a flurry of news story about all kinds of new and potentially revolutionary advancements in fusion technology. Sure we are all enthused about the possibilities being offered by this amazing technology that offers the promise of the ultimate solution to the world’s energy needs while helping militate against climate change.

But the reality is that the science of creating a commercially viable fusion reactor is still lacking an essential understanding of how the Stars that are scattered across the vast expanse of the universe maintains a self-sustained fusion reaction, similar to the process that is seamlessly occurring in our Sun. It would appear that the sun has not given up all of its secrets after all—at least, not yet anyway. 

My thinking is that, rather than advancing the understanding of the intricacies of the fusion process, scientists are merely making good strides in mastering the plasma containment technology that is necessary for a safe and operational nuclear fusion reactor.

However, that is just the first of two fundamental problems that they need to solve before any of the many State and Corporate entities working on developing a viable nuclear fusion reactor can claim any sort of revolutionary scientific breakthrough in fusion science.

It is common knowledge that the development of viable fusion technology has been constrained by the difficulty that scientists are having in regulating the atomic reaction that is occurring within the containment chamber of the reactor so that they can, in essence, control the massive amounts of heat being released.

On a fundamental level, the process of self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction is achieved when heavy hydrogen atoms (known as tritium and deuterium) are subjected to high pressures and temperatures of approximately 150 million degrees Celsius (270 million degrees Fahrenheit)—a temperature level that is supposedly hotter than what is obtainable at the center of the sun.

The intense pressure and temperature are needed to cause these subatomic particles to reverse their natural tendency to resist and repulse one another. The effect of this is that these ionic particles bonds together forming a new element helium. It at this point that the fusion process occurs and an incredible amount of energy are released—in theory, this process thus becomes self-sustaining.

In order to achieving this level of pressure and temperature, whilst maintaining minimal thermal loss, powerful heating instruments are needed—this is where the reactor technology comes into play. Scientists devised an ingenious way to ensure that the reactor sustains such an intense temperature without experiencing a thermal meltdown, by ensuring that the super-heated plasma inside the reactor chamber is kept away from the reactor walls.

To achieve this, they padded the walls of the reactor chamber with advanced superconducting devices that can generate strong magnetic fields—preferably, with minimum amount of power. Since the super-hot plasma is an electrically-charged gas, it is kept away from the walls of the reactor chamber by the magnetic fields.

The integrity of the magnetic fields is sustained by both the electromagnets which line the reactor chamber and by an electrical current that is generated by the heated plasma. This ensures that the magnetic field which is meant to ensure that the plasma particles and their energy output are repelled away from the reactor wall.

There are two major reasons, in my lay opinion—and I’m sure it’s an opinion shared by experts in the field, why scientists are still far from building a functional and commercially viable fusion reactor.

The first is that fusion reactors have not yet been able to generate more energy than it takes to produce the temperatures required for a self-sustaining fusion process to occur. This makes fusion technology, at its current stage of development, commercially non-viable.

The second reason is the threat to the structural integrity of the reactor chamber posed by runaway electrons. I feel that this is an intrinsically dangerous problem for fusion reactor technology—one that needs to be solved before fusion reactors can be considered to be a safe alternative to conventional fission reactors.

So what are these runaway electrons? You may ask. Well, we can sort of think of them as radicalized electrons with extremely high energy from its interaction with potent electric fields. Within the high pressure confines of a fusion reactor chamber, the intensity and acceleration that these free-radical electrons are charged can cause catastrophic damage to the reactor wall, as well as the exhaust regions—leading to disastrous thermal meltdown of the reactor.  

Many scientists have proffered solutions to the problems of runaway electrons within the fusion chamber; however, I am convinced that these solutions will precipitate other unforeseen problems.

I am of the sense that the solution to the fusion energy conundrum lies in the development of new science to explain how the sun is able to maintain its cohesive mass while engaged in a self-sustained fusion reaction process. This new discipline should take into account the existence of a yet undiscovered particle-wave that harmonizes the cascade of nuclear fusion.

I believe that astrophysicists would have to peer even deeper into the sun’s interior to decipher what is going on in there, if they hope to effectively replicate the actual particle(s) responsible for regulating the behavior of runaway electrons inside the sun’s core.

I was compelled to offer up this opinion because I am of the conviction that in order to safely and reliably control fusion plasma, scientists  have to thoroughly understand its natural properties—especially, those that are yet unknown, like the ‘Spectrion’ wave-particle.

Let’s be clear here, I am not by any means trying to suggest that scientists diminish their current efforts at continuing to develop fusion technology. On the contrary, I feel very strongly that the promise of fusion energy—a potentially limitless and clean source of electrical power generation, means that no effort should be spared in actualizing this important technology. I hope that additional financial resources are allocated to making this vital technology viable, in the near future.

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Authored by E. Stanley Ukeni, © 2017. All Rights Reserved. This material and other articles or stories posted on this blog site may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed, in whole or in part, without prior expressed written permission from the author, E. Stanley Ukeni.

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Photo Credits: NASA; MIT; National Fusion Research Institute, Korea;