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LIMITLESS energy: Tests confirm Germany's 'star in a jar' nuclear fusion reactor really works

CAPSLOCKSTUCK

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Last year, scientists started up a new type of massive nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, known as a stellarator.
http://www.ipp.mpg.de/14779/stellarator


Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald, Germany, injected a tiny amount of hydrogen and heated it until it became plasma, effectively mimicking conditions inside the sun.

But since then scientists have been asking whether the ambitious device - named Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) - works as it is supposed to, producing the right magnetic fields.

Now a research paper has shown tests over the past few months have proven the complex design is working as expected.


The hydrogen was heated in the doughnut-shaped Wendelstein 7-X machine (illustrated). Called a stellarator, the device uses a complicated system of magnetic coils to trap plasma long enough for fusion to take place




Two of the main contenders for nuclear reactors of the future are called tokamaks and stellarators.

Instead of trying to control plasma with just a 2D magnetic field, which is the approach used by the more common tokamak reactors, the stellerator works by generating twisted, 3D magnetic fields.

The new results could be a key step in verifying the feasibility of stellarators for use in future fusion reactors.

Since the machine has been switched on, researchers have been trying to answer the important question of whether or not it is producing the right magnetic fields.

This is crucial because the magnetic field in the machine is the only thing that will trap hot balls of plasma long enough for nuclear fusion to occur.

Physicist Sam Lazerson of the US Department of Energy teamed with the German scientists to test the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device.



Now the report, published in Nature Communications, has proven it does work as planned.




Fusion involves placing hydrogen atoms under high heat and pressure until they fuse into helium atoms. In stellarators, plasma is contained by external magnetic coils which create twisted field lines around the inside of the vacuum chamber (illustrated)

 

the54thvoid

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My friend is an engineer who works in various power plants and designs. How do we cross the bridge of harnessing the power from a maintained fusion reaction?
 

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I believe we will see Fusion Reactors in the not too distant future and this will be a huge leap forward for energy production. Lockheed claimed a couple of years ago that they would have a working Fusion Reactor the size of a truck within 10 years.
 

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I want to understand these 3D magnetic fields better. In particular, if they don't require power to maintain do they have some really massive permanent magnets, perhaps? Somehow I don't think so.
 

dorsetknob

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How do we cross the bridge of harnessing the power from a maintained fusion reaction?

Presumably in the Same way power is Extracted from Fission

Ie it has a Cooling loop
power is heat and that heat will drive Steam powered Turbines
Those Steam powered Turbines generate Electricky :)
More magic from the Age of WizzardsScience
 

FordGT90Concept

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My friend is an engineer who works in various power plants and designs. How do we cross the bridge of harnessing the power from a maintained fusion reaction?
Same as fission: water pipes to collect the heat (it's heated to well beyond boiling), pump it to steam turbines, it is allowed to expand and as it expands, drives the turbine, which rotate electric generators producing electricity.

I want to understand these 3D magnetic fields better. In particular, if they don't require power to maintain do they have some really massive permanent magnets, perhaps? Somehow I don't think so.
The description is pretty clear that they use electricity to power the magnets to suspend the plasma. The goal is to get more energy out than is put in.


My concern about this design is that it is really expensive and really big. I'm still hoping Lockheed succeeds but the stellarator design would at least work for commercial power generation. The initial cost to construct and start up though is probably going to forbid private construction without public financing. Further, I wonder how long these are expected to operate before components fail. Compared to fission, these reactors are extremely complex.
 

dorsetknob

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The Trick with working Fusion
is to get more power out than you put in
In other words it has to output more power as heat which generates Electricty than the Electrical power you use to start and maintain Fusion

So Far THAT has Proved nearly impossible to Achieve on an Industrial Scale
 

FordGT90Concept

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I think they did achieve it in at least one of the reactors (might be this one) but they didn't sustain it for much more than a minute. It was basically enough to break even.

Fusion, like fission, operates on E=mc^2. In other words, it takes very little gas to produce incredible amounts of thermal energy.
 
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