During science class on February 27, 2012 as a group we went to the MIT Plasma Center. When we arrived in Cambridge we got to walk around MIT and experience the ‘campus’, which had some really intriguing buildings.
When we arrived at the Plasma Center, we were greeted by a student at MIT who gave us a lecture on plasma, everything to do with it and the importance.
When the presentation about plasma was over, we ventured to the interesting sections of the Plasma Center. We saw the sign for the Alcator C-Mod which uses magnetic fields to enclose hydrogen atoms which allows it to fuse. We learned that MIT is trying to make this work, because honestly it uses a little too much energy. This Alacator C-Mod is very compact and highly proficient. The student who took us on this tour told us that this Alacator C-Mod is one of the world’s highest magnetic fields for plasma confinement, and it’s at MIT(How cool). The result of the invention at MIT of the Alacator C-Mod has allowed engineers and scientists to perform large and some of the largest fusion experiments in not just Massachusetts, or the United States, but the world. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the Alacator C-Mod but we did learn about it and see lots of graphs, and video of how it works, and how they measure.
After learning about the Alacator C-Mod we kept going at the Plasma center and saw the The ITER Nuclear Fusion Reactor. Below is a picture of this. The goal of the ITER Nuclear Fusion Reactor is essentially to make and plan for clean and unlimited energy, which would make energy cleaner leading to a better earth. The student told us that this went into the earths crust and that is where the energy sources could be found to study, and to create fusion which would make this clean energy.
The sad news that we were told was that MIT has lost some funding for this project. This is really unfortunate because it is such a great concept.
