Summary:
UCLA researchers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy have developed a novel system and method to achieve thermonuclear fusion in a laboratory scale device.
Background:
Many energy experts believe that nuclear has a key role to play as a clean, stable, and readily-available source of power, despite a contentious history. Nuclear power plants now generate about 10% of the world’s total electricity, and this represents 29% of all the world’s low-carbon power and 55% of the U.S low-carbon power. Nuclear fission is now widely used in nuclear power plants. This method is relatively clean but produces long-lived nuclear waste, and public debates over how to handle radioactive waste remains an issue. Nuclear fusion is considered the holy grail of energy: it releases more energy than fission and produces no nuclear waste. Despite the enormous interest in commercializing thermonuclear fusion as a future source of energy, there is no current laboratory scale thermal fusion device. There is a clear and urgent need for a lab-scaled fusion device to help scientists harness power from fusion for future energy applications.
Innovation:
Professor Seth Putterman and his research team have invented a transformational thermal fusion device. The benchtop system creates cavitation that can be used to reach temperatures higher than 5×106 K, which is in the regime of thermal fusion when the contents include deuterium or tritium. A proof-of-concept cavitation device has been created, and the system distinguishes itself from previous systems utilizing low operating temperature (around 1000 K). It is also functional with potentially corrosive materials like lithium. During the investigation of this innovation, the process of thermal fusion through cavitation with a bubble in a fluid under wide ranging conditions was well researched, and a simulations-informed knowledge base was built for the selection of an appropriate fluid material and gas. Furthermore, the concept underlying this creation can help define future materials that will drive fusion cavitation.
Potential Applications:
Lab-scale thermal fusion device
Advantages:
Operates at about 1000 K
Reaches temperatures in excess of 5MK
Computer simulations-informed knowledge base
Development to Date:
Initial conception completed.
Related Papers:
Towards higher energy density processes in sonoluminescing bubbles: Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 34, 045017 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0000869
Power Law Singularity for Cavity Collapse in a Compressible Euler Fluid with Tait-Murnaghan Equation of State https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.09025
Reference:
UCLA Case No. 2023-110
Lead Inventor:
Prof. Seth Putterman; Dr. John Koulakis.