World trip: England

So I've been working really hard. Apparently leaving school isn't as easy as you would think. There are leavers masses and parties and presents to organise and my revision is piling up and I just today had the realisation that 8 exams in 2 weeks is actually quite a concentrated exam timetable so how am I going to revise for everything at once and I should really cut back on coffee and chocolate and I need to catch up on the blog list that is piling up but how can I when there is so much to do? Deep breaths...

So I deserve a holiday. Today I am going to visit the Joint European Torus Reactor. I chose this place mostly because I'm studying it as part of the fusion energy part of my Alevel course (actually one of the most interesting and enjoyable parts) and also because its actually less than 2 hours, I mean come on how am I supposed to visit the hydroelectric plant in Canada I have exams coming up people! There are actually 28 countries involved in this project!

Its an experimental nuclear fusion plant and it uses some really interesting technology. Nuclear fusion is a dream for electricity production because the 'fuel' (its like fuel but it isn't combusted so it isn't really) is plentiful since deuterium is found in water. It also has no nuclear waste and is a form a clean energy. Its how the sun makes energy but really high temperatures are needed to overcome the repulsion of two positive nuclei coming together.

Here's the coolest thing for me. Because of the high temperatures needed the plasma can't touch the sides of its vessel because it will lose heat. The solution to this works like the northern lights. here charged particles are caught by the magnetic fields of the earth and brought down in a spiralling paths and this pattern is used by the plant. The plasma is contained by magnetic fields, moved around the vessel in paths. I mean how cool is that?! Plus the pictures of the place in my textbook are ah-mazing!!

Actually looking at the website I found something quite interesting. Since the site uses a whole 1 percent of UK's power they aren't allowed to run at times when there may be a peak electricity usage such as half time of a football match.

Ps. this was completely fictional but you can actually visit this place! But they are fully booked for 2012... But there is a waiting list in case of cancellations! I might sign up for one in the summer, that'd be really exciting!! Oh my goodness, I've got to sign up to that reserve list! Excitement!

Sometimes I wonder what i would do if I couldn't vent some of my nerdy excitement on my blog... Probably explode.