https://www.space.com/fusion-reactors-could-produce-more-power
http://fusionwiki.ciemat.es/wiki/Greenwald_limit
https://www.ans.org/news/article-4026/epfl-researchers-update-fusions-greenwald-limit/
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Nuclear fusion is a dream technology worth pursuing that could enable massive power output by harnessing the power of superheated hydrogen plasma. Nuclear fusion is the joining of small atoms into larger atoms, and the fuel is a hydrogen plasma that is contained in a magnetic field inside of a circular chamber. Nuclear fusion is a next-generation power-source that was recently theoretically upgraded as the limiting factor for the prominent tokamak reactor design was doubled. The limiting factor for the fusion reactor is called the “Greenwald limit”, and recent developments make fusion generators even more viable.
Several nuclear power experimental stations including the one in France called ITER, the DEMO power plant and the Swiss Plasma Center are working to develop operational fusion power generators, and the recent magnetic field discovery will impact them. Nuclear fusion technology has been in work for the past 50-years, and one of the limiting factors for the reactor design has been revisited and could be doubled to increase the amount of fuel that can be used inside. It is essential that a strong magnetic field be used to hold the plasma inside the reactor, and this limits the amount of fuel that can be inside the reactor, which is described by the Greenwald Limit.
Current fusion-power generators follow the tokamak design, which is a large circular chamber that holds super-heated hydrogen plasma using powerful magnetic fields. Fusion power is much cleaner and greener than fission power, which produces nuclear waste rods from the reactor and low-level waste as well. Fission power reactors are a good step towards green-energy technology, but the waste they produce must be housed or properly reprocessed under strict controls.
The Greenwald limit is the limit of density for magnetic devices that produce magnetic fields to keep plasm from damaging the walls of a fusion generator. The Greenwald limit has been the limiting factor for the energy that can be generated in a tokamak-style fusion plant, and recent developments estimate this limit may underestimate the power production of these units by half.
This is an exciting development for nuclear-fusion technology, as the underlying limiting factor for the tokamak reactor design has been decreased. The Greenwald limit of the magnetic field that can hold the energized hydrogen plasma is twice as high as previously understood, and the reaction that powers the fusion generator can help to contain the plasma. Nuclear fusion could come online as early as 2030, and with the ability to double the amount of plasma available inside the reactor, these new green-energy sources could become more commercially profitable and viable than ever.
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