Stellarators: Germany's nuclear-fusion machine

[josephpalazzo]

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.
The machine, which has a diameter of 52 feet, is called the W7-X.
And after more than a year of tests, engineers are finally ready to fire up the $1.1 billion machine for the first time. It could happen before the end of this month, Science reported.The black horse of nuclear reactorsKnown in the plasma physics community as the "black horse" of reactors that use nuclear fusion, stellarators are notoriously difficult to build.

Read more here: http://www.businessinsider.com/germany-is-turning-on-its-monster-stellarator-2015-10

[SGOS]

Somehow, I must have been given information that led me to believe fusion was the pink unicorn of atomic energy.

[josephpalazzo]

Somehow, I must have been given information that led me to believe fusion was the pink unicorn of atomic energy.

You might be thinking of cold fusion.

[Baruch]

The excellent animated drawing shows it does 5 twists ... so an ion has to go around twice to get back to the original position if it is near the edge ... and once around if near the center.  Will be interesting and practical physics.

[stromboli]

Good. The fundies will be screaming it will open the door to hell, or some such. Can't wait to see it operational.

[Baruch]

Good. The fundies will be screaming it will open the door to hell, or some such. Can't wait to see it operational.

Stargate ... then the Goa'uld will bring back the trillions of dollars in the Dark Economy to jump start our belated economic recovery ;-)

[josephpalazzo]

Latest news on the  stellarator:

Last December, the team managed to suspend a helium plasma for the first time, and they’ve now achieved the same feat with hydrogen. Generating a hydrogen plasma is considerably more difficult than producing a helium one, so by producing and sustaining one in today’s experiment, even for just a few milliseconds, these researchers have achieved something truly remarkable.

As a power source, hydrogen fusion releases far more energy than helium fusion, which is why sustaining a superheated hydrogen plasma within a stellarator represents such a huge step for nuclear fusion research.

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/germanys-fusion-reactor-creates-hydrogen-plasma-world-first

[stromboli]

Can you say Tokamak? Thought is sounded familiar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak

[josephpalazzo]

Showtime: Tokamak versus Stellarator. Well, it looks like the Germans are winning this one.