Researchers are itching to make fusion a viable commercial energy source, but issues with materials have been holding them back.
In order to safely and reliably produce energy, the material encasing the plasma must be able to withstand the "extremely hostile environment" for at least two years, an American Physical Society news release reported.
A new "novel diagnostic instrument" could allow researchers to map the map the composition of material inside a magnetic fusion device. The researchers could do this in between plasma experiments in order to see how it affects the material over time.
"This new approach to the study of fusion materials promises to provide scientists with new insights into the dynamic interaction of fusing plasma and its surrounding materials," the news release reported.
A number of dangerous things can occur in the fusion process, including "the erosion of surface material, the mixing of materials to form unintended alloys, and the retention of the plasma fuel." These scenarios can seriously shorten the component lifetime and negatively affect the plasma's performance.
"The dynamic, spatially varying changes to the material surfaces, coupled with the hostile environment inside the magnetic fusion device, present substantial challenges for experimental study in present-day devices," the news release reported.
In the past, these materials needed to be taken off-site in order to study using high-energy particle beams in a process called ion beam analysis (IBA). The process is extremely time-consuming and only provides a "snapshot" of the condition of the material since it can only measure one moment at a time.
For the first time, researchers have discovered a way to conduct IBA inside of the magnetic fusion device. A small linear accelerator injects a beam of ions into the Alcator C-Mod tokamak in between plasma discharges.
"Because the beam is composed of ions, magnets normally used to confine plasma can be used to steer the beam to different material surfaces. Advanced particle detectors located nearby detect the induced neutron and gamma particles, which can be used to compute the composition of the material surfaces," the news release reported.
Through this process researchers were able to track the changes in deuterium ("hydrogen fusion fuel") at four different surface points.
The team confirmed the process would allow the tracking of plasma and the response of surrounding materials without opening or moving the device.
