Our science class took a trip to MIT to learn about plasma physics and the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak. When we first arrived, we had the opportunity to be taught by one of the graduate students at MIT about plasma physics, Alcator C-Mod Tokamak, the environment and energy. I thought it was very interesting that 85% of our energy is from fossil fuels and green house gas emissions are from burning coal and petroleum. . Also, with better energy resources our health, education, and economy gets better. I learned that one of the main advantages of fusion energy is that there is no long-lived nuclear waste and the main disadvantage is that it is very costly. He mentioned that the Alcator C-Mod should be finished within the end of the decade. The students powerpoint was very informative and I learned a lot from him.
Next, our class made our way into the building with the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak. First, we learned about the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak. This is used to find alternatives for energy in the future. The Alcator C-Mod has the world’s highest magnetic field and makes the highest density tokamak plasmas. It confines hot plasmas with magnetic fields that is very difficult. It has the promises of becoming the ultimate nuclear power plant that will be better than the nuclear power plants that we have today. Many Professors and graduate students are working on the Alcator C-Mod. In the hallway we were also able to touch a bolt. Two bolts can hold down a space shuttle about to take off. After that we went into another classroom and learned more and put on construction hats before we went through the doors to the Alcator C-Mod Tokamak. The Alcator C-Mod was very interesting to look at. Many pipes and a lot bigger than I expected. I am thrilled about the Alcator C-Mod tokamak because it will convert mass to energy by not having any air pollution, threat of proliferation, and will not contribute to global warming.