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'Star In a Jar' Fusion Reactor Works, Promises Infinite Energy (space.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: For several decades now, scientists from around the world have been pursuing a ridiculously ambitious goal: They hope to develop a nuclear fusion reactor that would generate energy in the same manner as the sun and other stars, but down here on Earth. Incorporated into terrestrial power plants, this "star in a jar" technology would essentially provide Earth with limitless clean energy, forever. And according to new reports out of Europe this week, we just took another big step toward making it happen. In a study published in the latest edition of the journal Nature Communications, researchers confirmed that Germany's Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device is on track and working as planned. The space-age system, known as a stellerator, generated its first batch of hydrogen plasma when it was first fired up earlier this year. The new tests basically give scientists the green light to proceed to the next stage of the process. It works like this: Unlike a traditional fission reactor, which splits atoms of heavy elements to generate energy, a fusion reactor works by fusing the nuclei of lighter atoms into heavier atoms. The process releases massive amounts of energy and produces no radioactive waste. The "fuel" used in a fusion reactor is simple hydrogen, which can be extracted from water. The W7-X device confines the plasma within magnetic fields generated by superconducting coils cooled down to near absolute zero. The plasma -- at temperatures upwards of 80 million degrees Celsius -- never comes into contact with the walls of the containment chamber. Neat trick, that. David Gates, principal research physicist for the advanced projects division of PPPL, leads the agency's collaborative efforts in regard to the W7-X project. In an email exchange from his offices at Princeton, Gates said the latest tests verify that the W7-X magnetic "cage" is working as planned. "This lays the groundwork for the exciting high-performance plasma operations expected in the near future," Gates said.
1. Tokamak -- has never underperformed models
2. Stellarator -- appears like it will work.
3. MagLIF -- Experiments are following model predictions.
The reason why magnetic fusion doesn't work yet is because of the budget needed to build a large enough reactor.
The reason laser fusion hasn't worked is because the models have been failing. Basically using a neodymium laser works in computer modeling but in real life it sucks. In fact a laser beam itself is too coherent.
Anyway, we still have a track to fusion it is X number of years away because ITER was supposed to be built in 1984 and now it's scheduled for 2035 because of budget reasons. Tokamak has always worked as predicted or better.
MagLIF is probably the easiest and cheapest route to fusion. Lockheed seems to have a good approach too.
Article says "Topology of magnetic field confirmed."
they still haven't powered the thing up. they still don't know if it will work. headlines like this make me want to slap the writer across the face with a bowling ball in a string bag until they stop lying. and then a few more times just to make sure the lesson sticks.
The key part is omitted, this is a new version (of an old idea) of a field arrangement that is believed to confine the plasma better:
"The stellarator is different from the other toroidal magnetic surface concepts in that both the toroidal and the poloidal field components—which together create the magnetic surface topology—are created from currents in external coils. In the tokamak and the reversed-field pinch2, a strong toroidal current driven within the plasma is needed to generate the poloidal magnetic-field component. The stellarator’s lack of a strong current parallel to the magnetic field greatly reduces macroscopic plasma instabilities, and it eliminates the need for steady-state current drive. This makes it a more stable configuration, capable of steady-state operation. These are important advantages for a power plant....The stellarator was invented by Lyman Spitzer in the 1950s (ref. 3). So why did it fall behind? And why do some believe that it is about to have a comeback?"
There are other articles on other science sites that read better. This particular fusion system is a stellerator, a type that is currently looking to be the best of our experimental fusion systems for several reasons, not the least of which is that it doesn't have the same leakage and containment vessel damage, a huge problem with tokamaks.
Of course saying unlimited or infinite energy are just hyperbole, though it would have a lot of advantages over normal power generation methods.
Lemme guess- this fusion reactor is just 20 years from opening, right?
No, that was 20 years ago. Now it's just 20 years from opening.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Any sufficiently tabloid journalism is indistinguishable from advertising
I'm in my 50s, and I've been hearing that practical fusion generators were only 10-15 years off since I was a little nerdling
There was an article a few years back that put these in perspective. They pointed out that N years in the future really means $M dollars more spending in the future and that these predictions have been quite consistent: if we'd kept funding at the anticipated rate in the '60s, we might have working fusion already.
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given that among the authors of the Nature paper are R. C. Wolf and C. Biedermann. This Wolf-Biedermann project will of course produce high energy neutrons which must leave magnetic confinement in order to provide useful energy. When these neurtons strike metallic shielding material in the walls of the "stellerator" they generate radioactive elements via the process called neutron activation. And these radioactive elements release gamma rays, alpha and beta particles, x-rays and other components collectively referred to as radioactive waste. So when this ad from the 1950s claims there will be no radioactive waste, it is not telling the truth.
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Fusion never!
Fusion funding plot:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/U.S._historical_fusion_budget_vs._1976_ERDA_plan.png
"fusion is unlikely to ever see the light of day."
Was that a pun?