A 150-ton magnet developed in part by MIT engineers is pulling the world closer to nuclear fusion as a potential source of energy.
Over the last three years “we’ve shown that we can design a magnet of this size and complexity and make it work,“ said Joseph V. Minervini, a senior research engineer at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and Department of Nuclear Engineering. Minervini leads the MIT team involved in the project.
He notes, however, that a better understanding of certain results is necessary to reduce costs for the researchers’ ultimate goal: a magnet weighing 925 tons that will be key to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). That magnet, in turn, will be part of a total magnet system weighing some 10,000 tons.
ITER goals include demonstrating the feasibility of nuclear fusion as an energy source, which Congress has recently shown increased interest in. Last week a Department of Energy panel recommended that the United States re-join the multi-nation ITER collaboration. In 1999 Congress appropriated funding for completion of R&D commitments toward ITER, but not for an extension of US participation in the project.
In nuclear fusion, light elements are fused together at enormous pressures to make heavier elements, a process that releases large amounts of energy. Powerful magnets provide the magnetic fields needed to initiate, sustain, and control the plasma, or electrically charged gas, in which fusion occurs, eurekalert.com reported.
The 150-ton magnet in Japan is a testbed for the 925-ton magnet that will ultimately initiate and heat the ITER plasma. Two additional mammoth magnet systems will confine the plasma and control its shape. A model for one of these is currently being tested in Germany; a model of the second is planned.

Weighty Testbed
The cylindrical 150-ton magnet has three principal parts: an outer module built by a Japanese team, an inner module built by a US team, and a thin “insert“ coil near the core that is fitted with instrumentation to “tell what’s going on,“ Minervini said. Three different inserts have been separately tested; two of these were built by Japan, the other by Russia.
Three sets of tests on the magnet since 2000 have taught the engineers more about magnet performance on such a grand scale. The first test in 2000 showed that the inner and outer modules did indeed work (see MIT Tech Talk May 3, 2000).
Later in the same run the researchers tested one of the Japanese inserts. The overall device produced a magnetic field of 13 tesla (about 260 thousand times more powerful than the Earth’s magnetic field) with a stored energy of 640 megajoules at a current of 46,000 amperes (about 3,000 times the current handled by typical household wiring).
Most importantly, however, the team found that they could successfully operate the magnet in pulses, bringing it to 13 tesla and back down in a few seconds. “The magnet is only doing its job for this particular magnetic fusion application when we’re changing the magnetic field,“ or ramping it up and down, Minervini explained.
A superconducting magnet operated on a constant current, such as those used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the body, suffers no dissipation of electrical energy. That is not true, however, when a superconducting magnet is pulsed. And tests of the new magnet in pulsed operation showed that “initially [the electrical] losses were much higher than predicted,“ Minervini said.
With repeated operation, however, the magnet appeared to correct itself. “With each cycle the losses lessened until they reached a steady value a lot closer to what we’d predicted,“ Minervini said.
“We think we understand what’s happening, at least qualitatively,“ he continued. “It has to do with interactions between the thousands of wires twisted into cables that in turn are coiled to form the magnet. We are essentially changing the electrical characteristics of the cable in a way that decreases losses over time.“
The team also explored the magnet’s limits for three key parameters related to maintaining superconductivity: magnetic field, temperature, and current density.

While the transition from petrol fuel to hydrogen will be neither easy nor cheap, many motorists are becoming intolerant to rising petrol prices.

Gas company Linde has unveiled plans to launch a network of hydrogen stations on German highways. proposal to build 35 hydrogen pumps connecting Germany’s major cities may be a long-term solution to increasing oil prices. While the transition from petrol fuel to hydrogen will be neither easy nor cheap, many motorists are becoming intolerant to rising petrol prices. In such a climate, alternative fuel initiatives may gain the vote they need to succeed.
Linde’s plans for a hydrogen highway, while clearly welcome, are neither a simple nor immediate answer to prevailing high petrol prices. The project requires a E30 million investment and its success is largely dependent on support from the automobile and energy industry, as well as--ideally--the government.
Currently, a fuel cell system burning hydrogen powerful enough to run a car would add approximately E75,000 to the vehicle’s price; a surplus that few drivers can afford. However, motorists are currently finding fuel costs hard to bear. According to the BBC, two in every five German drivers plan to reduce their motoring due to petrol prices. Some are actively seeking out less expensive petrol stations, while others are crossing national borders to fill up, uk.biz.yahoo.com reported.
Germany’s wider economic woes have prompted action by oil companies as well as motorists. BP has announced it will invest E250 million in its shops to compensate for declining fuel margins. One German company even offers motorists insurance against further petrol price increases.
Motorists that are already taking active steps to reduce their spend on petrol are likely to appreciate the advantages, in the longer term, of an environmentally friendly fuel alternative. For the hydrogen economy to work, the new infrastructure must be supported by sufficient demand. But if motorists do not feel there are enough hydrogen stations to fill-up conveniently, the demand may never materialize - a ’chicken and egg’ scenario.
Traditionally, fuel sales have been relatively insensitive to price, protected by the lack of any suitable alternatives, however Linde’s plan to build a hydrogen highway is a welcome step towards an economy less dependent on petrol. The transition from oil to hydrogen is not going to be easy but, as the issue of petrol price rises is not going to disappear, the time is right for companies to push their hydrogen initiatives.

A third of all electricity is still generated by coal and 50% of the coal used in Britain is imported.

Scottish Coal and trades unions claim the country’s opencast mining industry is facing ruin if current planning laws are changed.
They claim that similar changes in England have decimated the industry.
New legislation planned for Scotland will also include a “presumption against development“ measure.
Opponents of the move will tell MSPs that there is a grave threat to 2,800 jobs because of protests from people who have moved into mining communities.
The coal companies and the trades unions insist that the coal industry still has a future.
A third of all electricity is still generated by coal and 50% of the coal used in Britain is imported.
Coal leaders say thousands of jobs in Scotland depend on opencast mining, particularly in rural parts of Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Fife.
The Scottish Executive is proposing to change planning laws to include a presumption against open cast developments, bbc.co.uk reported.

Fierce Protests
The trade unions warn that if it does so then the industry will die, just as they say it is doing in England.
And they accuse “not in my backyard“ campaigners of scaremongering in mining communities.
Scottish Coal has already had to withdraw from two opencast sites near the village of Douglas in South Lanarkshire because of fierce protests.
Campaigners in Greengairs, North Lanarkshire, are also battling the industry.
Community Council spokesman Bill McIntyre said: “At the moment the local people protesting against these licenses are not being heard. Whereas, if you get a change in direction that would change the situation all together.
“We’ve been fighting against these licenses for years and we’ve had a lot of support from Friends of the Earth.“
He added: “The jobs situation for the local communities is just not on--it’s a sham. The contractors have their own people on the machines. The jobs situation doesn’t come into it.“
Nicky Wilson, leader of the National Union of Mineworkers in Scotland, said: “In other areas--South Lanarkshire and East Ayrshire specifically--the majority of people who work in the open cast sites are people from the community.
“I don’t think communities are usually opposed to open cast sites.
“The fact the communities are there is because of local mining, albeit deep mining, many years ago. A lot of these communities have never recovered from the closure of the deep mines.
“They are the only jobs available. We would never say that the environment or communities should be badly affected by open cast, but there is a balance to be reached.“

The use of nanotechnology allows very thin solar panels to be created. “They’ll be very lightweight, and they’ll be able to mass print them onto rolls like newspaper and then just roll it out on rooftops,“ said Rona Fried, editor and publisher of the Progressive Investor newsletter.
Has Nanosolar found the Holy Grail of solar energy?
For years, the price of solar energy has been so high that, without some form of subsidy, it has been unable to compete with power from the electrical grid. Now Nanosolar, a Palo Alto, California, start-up claims it has developed a “commercial-scale technology“ that cuts the cost of delivering solar power by 75 percent and makes it competitive with juice generated by fossil fuels.
According to a report in The Hindu, a national newspaper in India, Nanosolar maintains that its technology can deliver solar electricity at five cents a kilowatt-hour (kWh). That compares to today’s solar industry average of about 20 cents per kWh, according to Atakan Ozbek, director of energy research at ABI Research in Oyster Bay, New York, technewsworld.com reported.

A Spectacular ’If’
The average cost of electricity off the grid varies widely but on average is around 10 cents per kWh, noted Tom Djokovich, CEO of XsunX, of Aliso Viejo, California, a maker of glass that produces electricity from sunlight. “If they [Nanosolar] can come in there at 50 percent of that, that’s obviously spectacular,“ he told TechNewsWorld.
“But if they’re using math in which they’re amortizing the cost per kilowatt hour over some extended period of time, just about anyone could come up with something that can be viewed as attractive,“ he added.
When TechNewsWorld requested by e-mail an interview with Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen, the executive responded, “We will keep you posted regarding upcoming announcements and our official launch ... at which time we’ll be happy to send you detailed information.“
Roscheisen added in another message that the “official launch“ of his company’s product would occur in “two weeks.“

Sounds Fishy
“This is somehow fishy, isn’t it?“ said Nabil M. Lawandy, president, chief executive officer, chief technology officer and chairman of the board of directors of Solaris Nanosciences Corporation in Providence, Rhode Island.
“Instead of letting the Wall Street Journal know or publishing it in Science or Nature or Physical Review Letter or something like that we’re hearing about it through The Hindu,“ he told TechNewsWorld.
Solaris is developing molecule-sized antennas to improve the efficiency of solar cells used to produce electricity. It is working closely with a company, Konarka Technologies, of Lowell, Massachusetts, that some see as a major competitor of Nanosolar.

Doesn’t Make Sense
“I don’t believe their claims,“ an executive at one solar energy company, who asked to remain anonymous, told TechNewsWorld. “It doesn’t make sense what they’re saying.“
“It’s certainly possible at some point in the distant future,“ the executive added. “People announce breakthroughs that they’ve made in the laboratory, and they project costs, but they haven’t made any commercial product and that’s very difficult to do.“
Rona Fried, editor and publisher of the Progressive Investor newsletter, which recently released a report on the solar energy industry, “Investing in Solar Photovoltaics: A Market at the Tipping Point,“ told TechNewsWorld that Nanosolar isn’t expected to have a commercial product available until 2007 at the earliest.

Hot Company
“Nanosolar is one of the up-and-coming privately-held companies in the field,“ she said. “They’ve got a technology that they’re working on now and they plan to enter full production in the next couple of years.“
If Nanosolar’s technology can produce electricity at five cents per kWh, “that would be really great,“ she noted. “That would make it [solar] very competitive with fossil fuels.“
“That’s the beauty of solar using nanotechnology,“ she added. “They are going to be able to bring the price of solar way down.“

A wind turbine that can be roof-mounted to provide homes with electricity is poised to enter commercial production after months of fine-tuning by the UK engineering team developing it.
Edinburgh-based Renewable Devices claims its Swift system is the first turbine in the world to be practical for use on roofs thanks to the elimination of noise and vibration, the traditional barriers to attaching wind energy devices directly to buildings.
’Conventional wisdom says you don’t put turbines on roofs. We thought to hell with conventional wisdom, let’s design one,’ said Renewable Devices co-founder Dr. David Anderson.
The turbine can be connected to the grid for embedded power generation or linked to an immersion water heating system. The Swift has a rated power output of 1.5kw and will generate up to 4,000kwh per year depending on wind conditions, which its developers claim would cut up to £440 off annual energy bills, graduateengineer.com reported.
Renewable Devices is about to begin full-scale production of the Swift after signing a sales and distribution deal with Scottish and Southern Energy. The utility will market the device across the UK at a cost of around £1,500 per unit, and hopes to install several thousand over the next two years.
’We don’t know of any other company in the world that has reached this stage,’ said Anderson.
Renewable Devices has filed five international patents on the turbine’s underlying technology, which combines advanced mechanical engineering design with electronic control systems.
To keep turbine-to-building oscillations to a minimum, the Swift’s mounting brackets use damping systems designed to absorb a wide range of frequencies.
Its ring diffuser keeps turbine noise low by preventing the creation of turbulent vortices at the blade tip. The system’s five-bladed design acts as an additional constraint on noise by allowing a slower speed of rotation.
Both the rotation speed and system integrity are controlled by a custom-developed, over-power regulation mechanism. This consists of a twin-vane progressive mechanical furling system linked to an advanced electronic control system.
According to Renewable Devices, the regulator allows the optimum amount of power to be extracted from the turbine under all wind and loading conditions without stalling.
The company’s engineers worked with bearings giant SKF on the development of the rotor and furling mechanism. The carbon fibre rotor is supported by two stainless steel ball bearings designed to cope with the huge gyroscopic and thrust loads imposed by the turbine in high winds.