New 'Stellarator' Design for Fusion Reactors

eldavojohn writes "The holy grail of fusion reactors has always seemed 'just a few years off' for many decades. But a recent design enhancement termed a 'Stellarator' may change all that. The point at which a fusion reactor crashes is when particles begin escaping due to disruptions in the plasma. A NYU team has discovered that coiling specific wires to form a magnetic field may contain the plasma. This may be a a viable way to create a plasma body with axial symmetry, and a far better chance of remaining stable. Like other forms of containment this does require energy itself, but could bring us closer to a stable fusion reactor. It may not be cold fusion or 'table top' fusion but it certainly is a step forward. The paper is up for peer review in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

Comments

Thorium reactors

[Bombula]

I was reading about thorium reactors recently. Seems like that's much closer to being rolled out, and its developers are claiming it solves a lot of the problems with existing reactors: it's more stable because thorium reactions don't chain the same way, it doesn't produce waste or plutonium, it can actually burn up other waste - including plutonium, and it can be used in some types of existing reactors (there are trials in Russian reactors right now).

Does anyone know any more about this?

Re:Thorium reactors

[Bombula]

Thorium good, but if possible, fusion even better.

It's important to define 'better' here. Cost would seem to be an important consideration, for example. I don't know what the price tag of fusion is so far, but it's awfully, awfully high already and without a great deal to show for it. If we've already got a pretty good thing in thorium, and we already have the reactors, and there's enough thorium and uranium to keep us in electricity at present consumption rates for thousands of years, and it's non-polluting and all the rest, then how is fusion - a hugely expensive, so far unproductive technology - 'even better'. I'm not quibbling or trying to be antagonistic here - it's a serious question, and it needs a serious answer considering what's at stake: we need clean, non-polluting power that doesn't ultimately come from politically volatile parts of the world.

Why reinvent the wheel?

[viking80]

Design parameters for fusion reactor:
1. Contain a plasma ball with high density for fusion reaction. Ball is much better than doughnut if you just can figure out a way to keep the plasma together.
2. Make a wall that is far enough away to not melt from this plasma ball to absorb heat/radiation to make power, and keep it close enough to get high enough energy density on its face.
3. Make the wall 1 ton/m^2 to protect the people outside
4. Use magnetic field outside plasma ball to contain radiation.

This seems like a tall order, and it is, but consider the sun/earth:
1. Gravity works great compared to magnetism.
2. Well, here on the earth, it is 1kW/m^2. That is much higher than the energy consumption in most cities. Should be good.
3. Our atmosphere stupid.
4. The earth again has a great magnetic field that protects us pretty well.

Bottom line: Why reinvent the wheel?