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New 'Stellarator' Design for Fusion Reactors

Posted by Zonk on from the less-whoosh-boom-for-your-money dept.

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."

2 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Thorium reactors by Bombula · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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?

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    A-Bomb
  2. Why reinvent the wheel? by viking80 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

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    don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org