14 DAY TRIAL // Physicists at the Culham, England-based Joint European Torus (JET) fusion reactor say that the new lining material the installation uses displays significantly less fuel absorption and erosion than any other material previously used for the same application.
Made up of tungsten and beryllium, the material displays superior chemical and physical properties. These could make it a viable option for lining the interior of the tokamak to be constructed at the much-larger ITER nuclear fusion reactor, in southern France.
ITER is a massive international project meant to eventually produce energy from nuclear fusion. However, progress on constructing it – and on achieving nuclear fusion, for that matter – has been slow.
This type of nuclear reaction occurs at extreme temperature and pressure levels, such as those found within the Sun. Energy is produced when hydrogen isotopes such as deuterium and tritium fuse with each other, producing helium and energy as a byproduct, Physics Today reports.