web.mit.edu— Tests on an experimental machine that mimics a planet’s magnetic field show that it may offer an ‘alternative path’ to taming nuclear fusion for power generation.
Jan 25, 2010View in Crawl 4
FTA:"... it uses a half-ton donut-shaped magnet about the size and shape of a large truck tire, made of superconducting wire coiled inside a stainless steel vessel. This magnet is suspended by a powerful electromagnetic field, and is used to control the motion of the 10-million-degree-hot electrically charged gas, or plasma, contained within its 16-foot-diameter outer chamber."I love how we actually make things like this.
According to a fusion power scientist I spoke to once, they've already produced excess energy, but they're slowly scaling up production in an attempt to reach the "commercially-viable" range. As it stands right now, reactors only produce power at a rate that would take them some hundreds or thousands of years to pay for themselves.I guess it was that by 2020 or so they wanted reactors capable of producing 20-40x as much energy as they consume... I can't recall very well. Don't quote me on the number.I guess the hops is that some time inside 20 years we'll have a marketable reactor design of some kind.
radicaledwardJan 25, 2010
I really envy the intelligence of those people working on projects like these. such an exciting thing to work on.
energyeinsteinJan 25, 2010
FTA:"... it uses a half-ton donut-shaped magnet about the size and shape of a large truck tire, made of superconducting wire coiled inside a stainless steel vessel. This magnet is suspended by a powerful electromagnetic field, and is used to control the motion of the 10-million-degree-hot electrically charged gas, or plasma, contained within its 16-foot-diameter outer chamber."I love how we actually make things like this.
poppingweaselsJan 25, 2010
Yeah, with 10 million degree plasma to boot.
myrthJan 25, 2010
So, in 20 years we'll have fusion reactor?
sivyrJan 25, 2010
According to a fusion power scientist I spoke to once, they've already produced excess energy, but they're slowly scaling up production in an attempt to reach the "commercially-viable" range. As it stands right now, reactors only produce power at a rate that would take them some hundreds or thousands of years to pay for themselves.I guess it was that by 2020 or so they wanted reactors capable of producing 20-40x as much energy as they consume... I can't recall very well. Don't quote me on the number.I guess the hops is that some time inside 20 years we'll have a marketable reactor design of some kind.
Closed AccountJan 25, 2010
While that may not be entirely true, it does seem a lot wiser to spend money on scientific research instead of 'defense'.
vatosplaceJan 26, 2010
Tax dollars at work.