Key technologies for the realization of Big Science "the Nuclear Fusion Reactor" Challenging "material development" which will function in harsh environments.
Mission is to "develop material that can withstand 100 million degrees".
Human-operated weapon that appear in a typical Japanese robot animations have been performing tough battles with "nuclear fusion reactors" as their sources of power. Bringing the fiction into practical application as the future energy resource --- Currently, research and development are progressing steadily to create nuclear fusion reactors under international cooperation and collaboration. Nuclear fusion has many potential benefits, such as "use of inexhaustible energy resources in the sea water like hydrogen isotope", "emits no CO2 known as the green house gas" and "initiates no ripple effect like nuclear fission reaction and in theory, it does not produce runaway reactions", however, in order to generate and maintain the nuclear fusion reaction, it is necessary to create high temperature and high density plasma which is estimated to be 100 million degrees Celsius. However, materials capable to endure such high temperature does not yet exist. Also, various high-energy particles such as fast neutron will incidence, and the material may be scraped off and the atoms of the material surface may be sputtered. Development of materials that function under such harsh, complex and extreme condition, will be the key technology for reallizing nuclear fusion reactor.
Nogami Laboratory, with its unique knowledge on materials, and based on the understanding of mutual interaction between high-energy particle beams and materials, is developing and evaluates the invention of materials which maintain its function and integrity with advanced high-intensity energy equipment. The laboratory also promotes the development of a new technology matrix using experiments and computer simulations, such as micro-processing technology using micro-cracks and upheavals caused by high-energy ion beams (emitted from a dynamitron accelerator and a cyclotron accelerator). The challenge to make this dream a reality will continue.
Professor
Associate Professor