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A fusion energy gain factor, usually expressed with the symbol Q, is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma in steady state. The condition of Q = 1, when the power being released by the fusion reactions is equal to the required heating power, is referred to as breakeven , or ...
Efficiency is how much energy is needed to drive the device and how well it collects energy from the reactions. Fusion is rate of energy generated by the fusion reactions. Radiation loss is the energy lost as light (including X-rays) leaving the plasma. Conduction loss is the energy lost as particles leave the plasma, carrying away energy.
In other words, fusion ignition is the point at which the increasing self-heating of the nuclear fusion removes the need for external heating. [1] This is quantified by the Lawson criterion. [2] Ignition can also be defined by the fusion energy gain factor. [3]
Scientists have been chasing the promise of fusion since the dawn of the atomic age, but had yet to cross a threshold in which more energy was created by a fusion reaction than the energy needed ...
Fusion energy gain factor: 2022: 1.54: NIF [286] Discharge time (field reversed configuration) 2016: 3 × 10 −1 s: Princeton Field Reversed Configuration [306] Fusion was not observed. Discharge time is not confinement time. Discharge time (stellarator) 2019 >1 × 10 2 s: Wendelstein 7-X [307] [308] Discharge time (tokamak) 2022 >1 × 10 3 s ...
Advances in the potential energy source may not be about electricity, at least at first.
The JT-60 tokamak in Japan produced a high performance reversed shear plasma with the equivalent fusion amplification factor of 1.25 - the current world record of Q, fusion energy gain factor. Results of European-based study of heavy ion driven fusion power system (HIDIF, GSI-98-06) incorporates telescoping beams of multiple isotopic species.
With the goal of breakeven (a fusion energy gain factor equal to 1) now in sight, a new series of machines were designed that would run on a fusion fuel of deuterium and tritium. These machines, notably the Joint European Torus (JET) and Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), had the explicit goal of reaching breakeven.