By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
TOKYO/BRUSSELS (Worthy News) – Truth be told: It looks like an outsized donut. Yet the six-storey-high machine in a hangar in Naka, north of the Japanese capital, Tokyo, is billed as “the answer to humanity’s future energy needs.”
Enthusiasts call it the world’s most giant experimental nuclear fusion reactor in
operation. The “tokamak” vessel, which has now officially been inaugurated, is to contain swirling plasma heated up to 200 million degrees Celsius (360 million degrees Fahrenheit).
It is a joint project by the European Union and Japan and the forerunner for its big brother in France, the under-construction International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
The goal of the reactor, with the arguably less inspiring name JT-60SA, is to investigate the feasibility of fusion as a safe, large-scale “and carbon-free source of net energy” – with more energy generated than is put into producing it.
Fusion differs from fission, the technique currently used in nuclear power plants, by fusing two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one, experts explain.
And unlike fission, fusion carries “no risk” of catastrophic nuclear accidents – like that seen in Fukushima in Japan in 2011 – and produces far less radioactive waste than current power plants, claim the project’s promoters.
PRESSURE ON SECTOR
It also comes amid pressure on the energy sector to find alternatives to fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas that climate-change-worriers say endanger the world.
The ultimate aim of both projects in Japan and France is to coax hydrogen nuclei inside to fuse into one heavier element, helium, releasing energy in the form of light and heat.
That process would be mimicking the process that takes place inside the Sun, according to experts familiar with the projects.
Sam Davis, deputy project leader for the JT-60SA, said the device would “bring us closer to fusion energy.”
“It’s the result of a collaboration between more than 500 scientists and engineers and more than 70 companies throughout Europe and Japan,” Davis said at the inauguration.
While it remains unclear when and if the $608 million reactor will prove to be the panacea for the world’s energy consumption requirements, those supporting it seem to believe it sets the standards for a new era under the Sun.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Christians in the Philippines appealed for prayers Sunday after authorities warned of “life-threatening” surges as the sixth massive storm hitting the nation in the past month intensified.
Poland says it has scrambled fighter jets and mobilized “all available forces” on Sunday amid a “massive” Russian missile and drone attack on neighboring Ukraine that killed at least seven people.
Christian residents in the Dutch town of Urk, known for its many churches and fishing traditions, are providing shelter to Jews after the Netherlands’ first pogrom since World War Two.
The ‘Days of Repentance’ operation launched by Israel against Iran in late October targeted and destroyed a highly secretive nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, according to Axios.
A United Nations committee has agreed to tackle “hate speech” and “misinformation” globally through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and media, despite worries the approach may “stifle pluralistic debate.”
Christians in Myanmar’s Rakhine state face continued persecution by the country’s Buddhist military junta (Tatmadaw), which has proved itself violently hostile to believers and recently imposed new restrictions on church services, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Brief scuffles broke out, and soccer fans whistled and booed as the Israeli anthem played at the start of the France-Israel match in Paris following a pogrom against Jews in the Netherlands, officials said Friday.