Physicists are cool, but this is cool!? That’s what this reporter thought when it emerged that the young nuclear physicist’s Instagram account had nearly 27,000 Instagram followers. Interpretation? The nuclear physicist became famous in 2009 when he won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest with the song Click chatter.
When Ralph Mackenbach was a child, he watched while his parents thought he was asleep Universe, a television documentary series about the universe with American astronomer Carl Sagan. Then, between musical performances, his enthusiasm for physics flared.
At the end of November, Mackenbach (28 years old) defended his thesis on nuclear fusion at TU Eindhoven. Honours. In a small, white, fluorescent-lit room at the university, he talks about his research over the past four years while leafing through his thick thesis. What Mackenbach likes about nuclear fusion is that it’s “hardcore physics.” Nuclear fusion revolves around plasma: flowing “fluids” that respond to electromagnetic fields. He also likes his research to have a clear social purpose and a sustainable energy source for the future.
The sun shines thanks to nuclear fusion. At the extreme pressure and temperature inside this star, the nuclei of lighter atoms fuse to form new, heavier atoms: for example, four hydrogen atoms produce helium. This releases a huge amount of energy. On Earth, physicists are trying to replicate this energy source in reactors. It is promising that the nuclear fusion reaction does not produce greenhouse gases. Nuclear fusion also produces less radioactive waste than nuclear fission, which gets its energy from splitting heavier atomic nuclei into lighter elements.
US climate envoy John Kerry described nuclear fusion as a “revolution for the world” during the climate summit held in Dubai. Is this correct?
“We have to address the climate problem in 2050 Net zero a company2emissions. I don’t think nuclear fusion would mean much in such a short period of time. There is currently no reactor anywhere that generates more power than you have to put into it. We also need to build nuclear fusion infrastructure. But in the long run, nuclear fusion is interesting. The world’s population is growing and people in more and more countries are demanding more and more energy. Nuclear fusion could play a role in this increasing energy demand.
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How does merging atomic nuclei work on Earth?
“We do it in a fusion reactor: a kind of big metal donut with cables around it. You can sit cross-legged in the donut I visited in Germany; it’s about half a meter high. We heat the center of the donut to 150 million degrees Celsius. This can be done using microwaves.” “Which microwaves also use to heat food. We put the light elements deuterium and tritium in the donut, and by heating them, they create a hot, glowing plasma. The temperature is high enough for the atoms to collide forcefully and eventually fuse.”
Mackenbach is investigating how heat escapes from the donuts to the exterior walls. This is one of the major and complex problems that must be solved to make nuclear fusion an effective source of energy.
“You don’t want the heat to transfer quickly to the donut walls; Then they will dissolve. We try to keep the plasma inside using magnetic fields, to which the plasma sticks like a string of beads. Those magnetic lines explain the shape of the donut. If the magnetic line were straight, it would hit a wall somewhere, and that’s where you lose the hot plasma. We generate magnetic fields using coils located on the outside of the circuit. The temperature of the coils is just above absolute zero [-273°C]. This gives you a huge difference in temperature for the donuts. The temperature difference wants to equalize itself. Just like when you put cold milk into hot tea. Then you see swirls forming, mixing the cold milk and hot tea. This also happens with the plasma in the reactor. And you want to get rid of that. These vortices cause heat to escape, making it more difficult for nuclear fusion reactions to continue.
How did you investigate those vortices?
“Vortices are messy. It takes a lot of computing power to calculate exactly what vortices will arise in a given plasma. Our idea is: we won’t even try to calculate that. In my research I wondered: Can you calculate the maximum amount of energy that can be contained in all those vortices in a plasma Certain? And the answer is yes, and I worked out the formula. It was reassuring that, according to the formula, if there was a lot of energy in the vortexes, and therefore a lot of heat could leak away, according to the computer simulation, a lot of heat had already leaked into this plasma setup .
How does this knowledge help nuclear fusion on Earth?
“You can use the formula to do a speculative calculation to predict, for example, the shape in which the least thermal energy is lost through the plasma cake-shaped eddies. It’s not about the fusion reactor shell, it’s about the shape of the path the plasma takes along the magnetic lines. You can control In this format using files.
Mackenbach wears a silver chain around his neck with an ornament that resembles a twisted donut the size of a euro coin. This is what the plasma looks like in a fusion reactor in Germany.
And the? What is the most efficient form?
“We don’t know exactly yet. It depends on several factors: exactly how big you want to make the reactor, and exactly how hot the plasma will be? However, the ideal shapes we have found so far resemble real reactors: they appear to be twisted donuts like in Germany.” he is working well.
Where does your future lie?
“I never plan for the far future. But I’m sure I enjoy doing research the most. In the new year I’ll go to Switzerland for my postdocs to continue working on donut shapes.”
You gave Presentation to the University of the Netherlands About nuclear fusion. Would you like to talk about science on stage as Carl Sagan?
“Yes! It’s very interesting to find a balance between telling the truth and explaining something that is understandable to a wide audience. And I also know – from my experience in music – how to attract attention. You don’t want to send out too much information per minute; you also just want to make it fun. During the performance You don’t always talk for twenty minutes between two songs.
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