Fabrice LOUCHE, La fusion nucléaire : à La conquête de l'énergie des étoiles
Although the sun has been a source of fascination, curiosity and even adoration since the dawn of civilization, it was only in the first half of the 20th century that its mode of operation began to be understood.
Nuclear fusion, which provides the sun with its power, is also the process that naturally synthesizes chemical elements.
The ambition to achieve nuclear fusion on Earth for peaceful purposes was born in the heart of the Cold War. Physicists quickly understood that if high densities and temperatures (several hundred million degrees) were required, confining the ionized gas, called plasma, at the heart of which these reactions take place, would prove to be a particularly difficult task. Among the possible confinement techniques, confinement by magnetic field, and in particular the tokamak sector, is by far the most promising. Research on tokamaks began in the 1950s, and progress has never faltered since. The energy balance of the plasma, measured by the product of the density, the temperature and the energy confinement time, has increased 1000-fold. Several megawatts of fusion power have already been produced and discharges lasting several minutes have been carried out. The scientific bases are now sufficiently solid to consider the construction of a device validating the feasibility of fusion energy: ITER. The insertion into the energy supply could take place in the second half of the century, at a time when the exhaustion of conventional resources and the climatic consequences of our consumption will be felt strongly. Fusion has advantages that can contribute to an energy production that respects our environment.
Where does it take place?
Salle Eugène Ysaÿe
Pl. des Chasseurs Ardennais
6700 Arlon
Belgique
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