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The Germans have built a Stellarator
Posted on 11/2/15 at 4:31 am
Posted on 11/2/15 at 4:31 am
LINK
quote:
For more than 60 years, scientists have dreamed of a clean, inexhaustible energy source in the form of nuclear fusion. And they’re still dreaming.
But thanks to the efforts of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, experts hope that might soon change. Last year, after 1.1 million construction hours, the institute completed the world’s largest nuclear fusion machine of its kind, called a stellarator.
They call this 16-metre (52-foot) wide machine the W7-X. And following more than a year of tests, engineers are finally ready to fire up the US$1.1 billion machine for the first time, and it could happen before the end of this month, Science reported.
quote:or
For years, tokamaks have been considered the most promising machine for harnessing the power of the sun because the configuration of their magnetic coils contains a plasma that is better than that of currently operational stellarators.
But there’s a problem: Tokamaks can only control the plasma in short bursts that last for no more than 7 minutes. And the energy necessary to generate that plasma is more than the energy engineers get from these periodic bursts.
Tokamaks thus consume more energy than they produce, which is not what you want from nuclear fusion reactors, which have been touted as the “most important energy source over the next millennium.”
Because of the stellarators’ design, experts suspect it could sustain a plasma for at least 30 minutes at a time, which is significantly longer than any tokamak. The French tokamak “Tore Supra” holds the record: 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
If W7-X succeeds, it could completely turn the nuclear fusion community on its head and launch stellarators into the lime light.
“The world is waiting to see if we get the confinement time and then hold it for a long pulse,” David Gates, the head of stellarator physics at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, told Science.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 4:54 am to Jim Rockford
Jim, cliff notes please. I don't understand that.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 4:58 am to AthensTiger
Fusion getting closer to feasibility-maybe.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 5:04 am to Jim Rockford
Or open a black hole here on earth.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 5:13 am to Jim Rockford
I'm all for it. However I won't be looking forward to all the economic chaos this will cause if it indeed becomes workable.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 5:14 am to Corch Urban Myers
quote:
I'm all for it. However I won't be looking forward to all the economic chaos this will cause if it indeed becomes workable.
Baws gonna be paying people to haul their F250's away.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 5:25 am to Jim Rockford
quote:
Baws gonna be paying people to haul their F250's away.
yep.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 5:26 am to Jim Rockford
So these will be used for car engines? When there is a head-on collision will it be like a bomb?
Posted on 11/2/15 at 6:02 am to AthensTiger
quote:
So these will be used for car engines? When there is a head-on collision will it be like a bomb?
As opposed to the giant gasoline bombs we drive now?
Posted on 11/2/15 at 6:11 am to CoachChappy
I see this being used to replace coal plants and older nuclear plants. Mainly for the power grid. If it's basically unlimited then that'll make electricity really cheap and then electric cars will become the norm. At least that's what I hope happens.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 6:15 am to AthensTiger
quote:
Jim, cliff notes please. I don't understand that.
A tokamak is a kind of fusion reactor. In theory much more efficient than a nuclear fission reactor. Problem is that every tokamak ever built is a two-pump chump - they haven't been able to hold magnetic containment for long enough. The stellerator is the latest attempt to do better so that we can finally pick these up at Autozone:
You will still need a flux capacitor though.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 6:18 am to AthensTiger
quote:
When there is a head-on collision will it be like a bomb?
Do you actually know how a nuclear bomb works?
Posted on 11/2/15 at 6:41 am to LanierSpots
quote:
Do you actually know how a nuclear bomb works?
No. This is way over my head.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 6:43 am to LanierSpots
People are so incredibly ignorant of nuclear power.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 6:58 am to Jim Rockford
quote:
quote: I'm all for it. However I won't be looking forward to all the economic chaos this will cause if it indeed becomes workable. Baws gonna be paying people to haul their F250's away.
Ford needs to start selling F250s in Germany.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 7:06 am to GetBackToWork
quote:
Ford needs to start selling F250s in Germany.
Roads and parking spaces are way too small.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 7:26 am to StraightCashHomey21
quote:
Roads and parking spaces are way too small.
Well then at least "Stellarator Müll machen Stellarator Bargeld" stickers.
Posted on 11/2/15 at 7:28 am to Jim Rockford
quote:
And the energy necessary to generate that plasma is more than the energy engineers get from these periodic bursts.
i mean, yeah... what did they expect? to break the laws of physics?
Posted on 11/2/15 at 7:34 am to GetBackToWork
Müll.
Great Teutonic word.
As I understand it, any real break-through in Stellarator technology would be utilized to generate electricity like power plants are currently (see what I did there?) used and that electricity put onto the grid.
Great Teutonic word.
As I understand it, any real break-through in Stellarator technology would be utilized to generate electricity like power plants are currently (see what I did there?) used and that electricity put onto the grid.
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