--- title: "Researchers Just Overcame a Key Barrier to Fusion Power" description: "U.K. researchers say they've finally found a way to vent super-heated plasma, which can be as hot as the Sun, out of a tokamak fusion power reactor." date: "2018-12-02" modified: "2018-12-02" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/researchers-overcame-key-barrier-fusion-power" categories: - "Energy" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "ian chapman" - "ITER" - "tokamak" - "u.k. atomic energy authority" --- # Researchers Just Overcame a Key Barrier to Fusion Power ![U.K. researchers say they've finally found a way to vent super-heated plasma, which can be as hot as the Sun, out of a tokamak fusion power reactor.]() *\Image: DAMIEN JEMISON/LLNL\* ## Fusion Cuisine One promising approach to nuclear power is a type of reactor called a tokamak, which uses [powerful magnetic fields]() to trap super-heated plasma in a bagel-shaped torus. An obstacle to making tokamak reactors viable is that the plasma gets extremely hot, reaching [temperatures of up to]() 100 million degrees Celsius — as hot as the Sun. But [according to]() *Reuters,* U.K. researchers say they've finally found a way to vent that heat safely. ## Sacrificial Wall The new exhaust system, which was developed by scientists at the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, directs the plasma to travel in a longer path through the tokamak in order to cool down. Then the cooler plasma will come into contact with a "sacrificial wall" — it wasn't clear from the *Reuters* report what it's made out of — designed to be replaced every few years as the plasma breaks it down. ## 2025 Vision The researchers hope the new exhaust system will be used at an experimental reactor in France called ITER. The international team working on ITER, which is [scheduled to go live]() in 2025, hope that it will be the first reactor in history to produce net energy — which would be a meaningful step toward practical fusion power plants. "We're here to commercialize fusion power," Atomic Energy Authority executive director Ian Chapman told *Reuters*. "I mean, fusion offers this enormous potential. There's no long-lived radioactive waste, there's effectively inexhaustible fuel, there's no carbon emission. It sounds perfect, but it's really hard to do." **READ MORE:** [New exhaust system brings fusion energy one step closer]() \[*Reuters*\] ***More on fusion power: [China’s “Artificial Sun” Is Now Hot Enough for Nuclear Fusion]()*** ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()