For a long time, scientists have been trying to create conditions for a stable controlled thermonuclear fusion reaction. However, the production of such a reactor is fraught with difficulties and even the most ambitious project in this area, ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), has been postponed until 2025. But help may come from physicists at the University of Tokyo, who, according to ScienceAlert, are one step closer to harnessing fusion energy. They were the first to create a magnetic field with completely controllable parameters.
This was necessary because one of the ways to start a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction is to hold the compressed high-temperature plasma and its charged particles in order to raise the overall temperature of the reactor. This method is called EMFC (electromagnetic flux-compression), or "electromagnetic flux compression". The device developed by Japanese scientists is capable of generating a magnetic field with a force of 1200 Tesla. During a series of experiments, Japanese physicists managed not only to create such a field, but also to make it work for 100 microseconds. Yes, this is not a very impressive result, but it still surpasses all previous indicators many times. At the same time, which is also very important, during the operation of a new installation, its structural elements are not subject to destruction and change under the influence of its own magnetic field. According to the technology developers at the University of Tokyo, “For you to understand, the magnetic field generated by the new device is more than 120,000 times stronger than the field generated by conventional fridge magnets. Moreover, its characteristics and duration of action are as close as possible to the minimum characteristics of the magnetic field necessary for carrying out stable thermonuclear fusion reactions. All this takes us one step closer to the moment when we will have at our disposal a practically inexhaustible source of energy."
Vladimir Kuznetsov