Does Iron man's arc reactor is possible?

 

First of all I would like to ask you a question, Does you ever watched iron man movies?

 

 

If the answer is yes, then you must have seen the white light shining on the chest of the iron man. Does you know, what the source of that light is? “That is arc reactor”. Ohh you know that! Well I am sorry, I should have known that you are so talented.

Now, the second question is have you ever imagine how it works and does it really possible in real world or not. Let’s see.

NOTE: In this article we are going to talk about arc reactor (miniature version) which is made by the “Genius, Billionaire, Playboy and Philanthropist” aka Tony Stark.

History of arc reactor in MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Iron Man's Foundation is an arc reactor and he built it not for the suits but to save owns life. 

On the date of 1 may 2008, 10 rings attacked tony to kidnap him in which he got injured. The small pieces of metal got penetrated in his chest which was moving slowly towards his heart. To save his life a doctor place an electro magnet in his chest which stop these pieces of metal reaching from heart. This electro magnet works on a car battery, which tony need to carry it with himself but you know our tony is not that kind of person so he built a device which power the electro magnet and it is very small in size. The device that he built called as arc reactor, he made it from a scratch of metals inside the cave. Then he also use this device to power the suit and get escaped from their captivity. After it tony upgrade his arc reactor many times.

Original Iron Man's Arc reactor

What is arc reactor?

The arc reactor is limitless source of energy that supports the life of Tony Stark and also it is the power source for the Iron man suit. In general the arc reactor is a fusion reactor. In the process of fusion the element is heated up to very high temperature during this the electrons are removed from the element and converted in plasma which is ultimate source of energy.

How would reactor work?

Now let’s dig into the species of how the reactor would work. The process of fusion must be taken place into donut-shaped reactor core known as tokamak. Two kinds of hydrogen atoms called as deuterium and tritium would be held inside the donut shaped reactor core. Small pulses of energy are required to start the fusion. Due to this energy both atoms fuse together. Due this fusion both atoms combine and form one helium atom and one free neutron. The mass of the free neutron and helium is less than mass of deuterium and tritium which is initially taken. Theoretically the missing mass in the process is the energy obtained by fusion. That energy can be captured as a heat to run a traditional steam-driven power plant.

Tokamak Shape reactor core

The heat generated in the process of fusion is in the form of plasma whose temperature is very high up to 150 million degrees. To avoid this heat to lost into atmosphere the large electro magnets are wounded around the donut-shaped reactor core. These electro magnets keep away the plasma from the walls during the process of fusion. Therefore they act as the insulation from hot plasma and outside environment.

 

Does it can be built in real world?

The answer is yes as well no at the same time. No in the sense because the miniature version which is built by tony stark is not possible even though if it is possible it can charge only up to the capacity of your mobile phone not more than that.

Now the yes in the sense because the teams at MIT working to create a fusion reactor that would be about 21 feet in diameter. It is predicted by MIT’s plasma science and fusion center that the real model of positive fusion reactor would be prepared up to 2025.

However the fusion reactors have been around for a while. Scientists have been able sustain fusion reactions, but the net electricity produced has always been negative. In other words, no fusion reactor has ever been made that produce more energy than it consumes. This is due to the immense energy needed for the superconducting coils used to create the stabilizing magnetic fields. If scientists are able achieve the goal of positive fusion reactor core, it would spell the beginning of one of the cleanest energy sources in human history.......