Scientists uncover ‘saltshaker’ breakthrough in quest for limitless energy — here’s how it could transform the future

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Scientists uncover ‘saltshaker’ breakthrough in quest for limitless energy — here’s how it could transform the future

Scientists are getting closer to functioning, sustainable

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, and they’ve just taken another big step: finding a way to prevent material on the chamber walls from interfering in the reaction, Interesting Engineering

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Scientists were facing a problem. A fusion reaction needs superheated plasma to work. Experiments have revealed that tungsten is a durable material that is good for containing that plasma, and the plasma-containing device — called a tokamak — was built with tungsten walls.

However, when a fusion reaction runs inside a tungsten tokamak, tiny pieces of tungsten break off and mix into the plasma — these tiny bits cool down the plasma too much, preventing the reaction from running.

Researchers at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have found the solution, Interesting Engineering

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: sprinkling boron powder into the plasma and allowing it to form a coating on the tungsten walls.

“We’ve developed a new way to understand how injected boron material behaves in a fusion plasma and how it interacts with the walls of fusion reactors to keep them in good condition while they are operating,” Florian Effenberg, a PPPL staff research physicist, said in a press release about the discovery, per

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Joseph Snipes, deputy head for Tokamak Experimental Science, explained in depth how the boron coating works. “The boron is sprinkled into the tokamak plasma as a powder, like from a saltshaker, which is ionized at the plasma’s edge and then deposited on the tokamak’s inner walls and the exhaust region,” he said, per Interesting Engineering. “Once coated with a thin layer of boron, it will stop the tungsten from getting into the plasma and radiating away the plasma energy.”

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This could be a huge deal for fusion experiments around the globe, which could lead to what has been called the “holy grail” of clean, efficient, abundant electricity. That’s a game-changer not just for preventing pollution but also for making energy cheaper and more accessible for people worldwide.

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