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High-Tech Agenda Germany to strengthen fusion-related research. European XFEL will be a vital partner.
With the High-Tech Agenda Germany, the German government has set the course for the advancement of fusion-related research in Germany. The action plan ‘Germany on the way towards a fusion power plant’ defines measures to build the world's first fusion power plant in Germany.
Nuclear fusion, as it takes place in the sun, promises an almost inexhaustible source of energy. At its core, it involves the fusion of lighter atoms such as hydrogen, deuterium and tritium into heavier atoms such as helium. This produces huge amounts of energy, which is to be harvested in a power plant.
The world's largest X-ray laser, the European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg, is predestined for investigating fundamental processes of fusion. In particular, researchers at European XFEL want to contribute to investigating the critical early phases of fusion-related reactions. Its instruments are equipped with powerful lasers that generate the very high energy densities required to create plasma, an extremely hot state of matter. Using the extremely short and intense X-ray laser flashes of the European XFEL, the researchers would be able to analyse the reactions taking place step by step. This would provide extremely detailed images of the inside of fusion experiments, right down to the atomic level.
“With our X-ray laser, we can precisely investigate how fusion-related processes take place,” explains Prof Thomas Feurer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Management Board of European XFEL. “This enables researchers to better understand the complex processes and better predict the conditions under which a fusion reaction begins and how it can be optimised.”
“The European XFEL was built with a future-proof design, enabling it to continuously expand its capabilities to meet emerging scientific challenges,” so Feurer. "This forward-looking approach positions us to contribute within a short time to the next level of fusion research."
The research will address a broad spectrum of open issues, with a special emphasis on laser-based inertial fusion. In this process, spherical capsules filled with fuel like hydrogen and deuterium are compressed and heated to extremely high pressures and temperatures using lasers, causing a fusion reaction to occur.
“Our X-ray laser flashes allow us to make ultra-fast processes visible,” says Sakura Pascarelli, Scientific Director of European XFEL. “This enables us to observe exactly how matter behaves as it approaches fusion conditions – a key to answering unresolved questions in fusion research.” Extreme states of matter, which otherwise only occur inside stars or during fusion reactions, can be generated at European XFEL using the extremely powerful lasers e.g. of HED-HiBEF , one of seven experimental stations at European XFEL.
“We are optimistic that we can offer new perspectives for fusion-related research,” says Pascarelli. “In this way, we can support international efforts to make a significant contribution to the global endeavour for clean and safe energy sources of the future.”
As early as June 2024, a workshop at European XFEL led to a broad scientific consensus that combining the precise X-ray flashes of European XFEL with powerful lasers could provide new insights that would significantly advance fusion-related research. An internationally recognised platform for investigating states of matter under extreme conditions is therefore planned at European XFEL, the importance of which has been emphasised by policymakers as well as international experts.
-- About European XFEL --
European XFEL in the Hamburg area is an international research facility of superlatives: 27,000 X-ray flashes per second and a brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the best conventional X-ray sources open up new opportunities for science. Research groups from around the world are able to map the atomic details of matter, decipher the molecular composition of cells or viruses, take three-dimensional “photos” of the nanoworld, “film” chemical reactions, and study processes such as those occurring deep inside planets.
The non-profit company cooperates closely with its main shareholder, the research centre DESY, and other organisations worldwide. European XFEL has a workforce of more than 550 employees. At present, 12 countries have signed the European XFEL convention: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Germany (through the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space and the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein) covered 57 per cent of the construction costs for the research facility, Russia 26 per cent. The remaining partner countries contributed between one and three per cent. Operating costs are also shared among the partner countries, based on a calculation that reflects both their shares in the company and its facility usage. For more information on European XFEL, visit https://www.xfel.eu.
https://www.bmftr.bund.de/EN/Technology/HightechAgenda/HightechAgenda_node.html (High-Tech Agenda Germany)
Thomas Feurer giving an outlook on how the world's largest X-ray laser can significantly support res ...
Source: Sven Kamin
Copyright: © European XFEL
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