A prototype deuterium fusion reactor will be built in Novosibirsk

The team of scientists of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the SB RAS is going to build a prototype of a nuclear reactor. The reactor will be built in the basement of the institute itself, and the implementation period is five years. Creating a prototype reactor is part of the project "Development of the fundamentals and technologies of thermonuclear energy of the future."

The project budget is quite substantial, and leaves 500 million rubles. Scientists have already received several large federal grants.
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“The prototype will occupy the entire dark hall of the DOL complex (a complex of long open traps) - a large room 60 meters long with powerful radiation protection. This will be a full-scale model of the reactor. Its creation, of course, will give impetus to all the physics of hot plasma throughout the world community, ”said Alexander Ivanov, deputy director for scientific work at the INP, SB RAS.

“There is no necessary protection in Akademgorodok, therefore we cannot use tritium and conduct experiments with deuterium plasma. The difference from the physical point of view is negligible, but the deuterium-deuterium variant is very convenient to use to measure plasma parameters without creating problems for the surrounding population, ”Ivanov commented on the plans of designers. According to the scientist, the use of tritium would also significantly increase the budget of the entire project, which would make its implementation impossible.

The goal of the project itself is to conduct scientific research and, possibly, radioactive waste processing. “We will conduct only modeling experiments with electron generation, but all the parameters of the reactions will correspond to the real ones. We will not produce electricity either - just to prove that the reaction can proceed, that the plasma parameters have been reached. Applied technical tasks will be implemented in other reactors, ” said Yuri Tikhonov, deputy director for research at the Institute.

“In existing installations, plasma temperatures of 10 million degrees have been reached. This is a key parameter that determines the quality of the reactor. We hope to increase the temperature of the plasma in the newly created reactor by two or three times. At this level, we can use the facility as a neutron driver for a power reactor. On the basis of our model, neutron-free tritium-deuterium reactors can be created. In other words, the installations we have created will make it possible to create neutron-free fuel, ”said Alexander Bondar, another deputy director for scientific work at the INP, SB RAS.


Video from the press conference devoted to the presentation of the integrated scientific program of the Institute “Development of the Research and Technological Potential of the INP SB RAS in the field of accelerator physics, elementary particle physics and controlled thermonuclear fusion for science and society”.

UPD . Received a very interesting information from the event participant, it turns out, everything is not so rosy, as described by the media. Here is a message on the forum .