Way forward for N-plant agreed
Updated on 06 October 2008
Plans for a £600 million European fusion plant that will re-create the power source of the Sun have taken a step forward.
Scientists and government officials from Britain and nine other countries signed an agreement to co-operate on the planning and design of HiPER (High Power Laser Energy Research Facility).
HiPER - which could be located in the UK - will demonstrate the technology needed to make commercial fusion power a reality for the first time.
Using powerful lasers, it will mimic the way the Sun burns nuclear fuel to generate vast amounts of energy.
Fusion involves fusing deuterium and tritium, both different atomic forms of hydrogen, together to trigger a nuclear reaction.
As well as powering the Sun and other stars, the same process is behind the destructive force of a hydrogen bomb.
Harnessing fusion power could provide a virtually unlimited source of clean sustainable energy. But enormous technical obstacles must be overcome first.
HiPER will use powerful lasers to compress a shell of deuterium and tritium fuel to a very high density, raising the temperature at the core of the reactor to around 100 million C.
The effect will be like striking a match to ignite the nuclear furnace, which then becomes self-sustaining.
A similar process takes place in the Sun, where enormous gravitational pressure squeezes hydrogen atoms together until they fuse.
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