"UK'S NEWEST FUSION REACTOR JUST CREATED ITS FIRST PLASMA"
Tokamak Energy's fusion reactor has reached its first plasma and it's prepared to follow its plan to produce temperatures of 100 million Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) by 2018. By achieving first plasma, this phrase means simply that the reactor was able to successfully generate a molten mass of electrically-charged gas - plasma - within its core. The reactor ST450 was built by Tokamak Energy, a leading private fusion energy company in the world. This company was founded in 2009 in the hopes of designed and creating small fusion reactors to introduce fusion power into the grid by the 2030s. Now that the ST40 is operational, the company will begin installing the rest of the magnetic coils need to reach fusion temperatures. The ST40 will be able to create plasma as hot as the centre of the Sun by the autumn of 2017, and by 2018, plasma at temperatures capable of controlled nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is a potentially revolutionary power source that could produce limitless supplies of clean energy without producing dirty waste or any significant carbon emissions. Unlike nuclear fission (which occurs today in nuclear reactors), fusion would only require salt and water, thus producing energy and helium as a waste product.
Read more about this fascinating story at: https://futurism.com/a-world-first-fusion-reactor-just-created-its-first-plasma/
Image Credit: Adina Voicu