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NUCLEAR FUSION BREAKTHROUGH
https://citizenfreepress.com ^ | Posted by Kane on September 9, 2021 1:59 pm

Posted on 09/09/2021 11:04:18 AM PDT by Red Badger

MIT breaks magnetic field strength records, paving the way for practical, commercial, carbon-free power.

Project achieves major advance toward fusion energy

SOURCE — MIT

It was a moment three years in the making, based on intensive research and design work: On Sept. 5, for the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth. That successful demonstration helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the world’s first fusion power plant that can produce more power than it consumes, according to the project’s leaders at MIT and startup company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS).

That advance paves the way, they say, for the long-sought creation of practical, inexpensive, carbon-free power plants that could make a major contribution to limiting the effects of global climate change.

“Fusion in a lot of ways is the ultimate clean energy source,” says Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research and E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics. “The amount of power that is available is really game-changing.” The fuel used to create fusion energy comes from water, and “the Earth is full of water — it’s a nearly unlimited resource. We just have to figure out how to utilize it.”

Developing the new magnet is seen as the greatest technological hurdle to making that happen; its successful operation now opens the door to demonstrating fusion in a lab on Earth, which has been pursued for decades with limited progress. With the magnet technology now successfully demonstrated, the MIT-CFS collaboration is on track to build the world’s first fusion device that can create and confine a plasma that produces more energy than it consumes. That demonstration device, called SPARC, is targeted for completion in 2025.

“The challenges of making fusion happen are both technical and scientific,” says Dennis Whyte, director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, which is working with CFS to develop SPARC. But once the technology is proven, he says, “it’s an inexhaustible, carbon-free source of energy that you can deploy anywhere and at any time. It’s really a fundamentally new energy source.”

Whyte, who is the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, says this week’s demonstration represents a major milestone, addressing the biggest questions remaining about the feasibility of the SPARC design. “It’s really a watershed moment, I believe, in fusion science and technology,” he says.

Continue reading…

https://news.mit.edu/2021/MIT-CFS-major-advance-toward-fusion-energy-0908


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: fusion; superconductivity
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To: ping jockey
Actually, take the color to Grey and red detail to Grey and you have mine:


81 posted on 09/09/2021 8:02:52 PM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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To: AndyJackson

“The calculated local TBR in the present design reached 1.4 or more in the Li-Pb breeder with a sufficient thickness of the breeding zone.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0920379698001033#:~:text=A%20blanket%20design%20with%20a%20high%20local%20tritium,to%20obtain%20a%20large%20volume%20of%20component%20testing.


82 posted on 09/09/2021 8:15:03 PM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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To: TexasGator

I am not going to argue this further. First, we don’t have any demonstrated scheme for getting fusion anywhere except bombs and astrophysical objects so the practical engineering aspects are kind of irrelevant.

Second, there are a lot of practical engineering issues that must be overcome including the demonstration of a scheme for breeding tritium with a sustainable system cycle gain > 1. Not just a blanket design, but the whole system.

Fusion is very very different from fission. Fission reactors work well in cylindrical geometries, which means that engineering is straightforward [cold water in one end, hot water out the other, fuel elements that can be inserted and withdrawn as bundles in a linear fashion, easy instrumentation, etc.]. Nuclear physicists keep trying to design spherical fission reactors, but from an engineering standpoint, excepts for some very specialized applications, they are a practical disaster. Fusion physics doesn’t like cylinders. It seems to prefer spheres for laser fusion, or toroids for magnetically confined fusion, which cause endless engineering nightmares.

But we needn’t worry about the engineering part because no one has yet made the physics part work.


83 posted on 09/09/2021 8:24:54 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson

“I said overall the TBR is less than one when practical considerations are accounted for. Another point - the calculation ignores fusion neutron interactions with and absorbtion by structural eleements.”

I refer you back to my first link which had TBR values greater than 1.2 considering structural materials.


84 posted on 09/09/2021 8:25:20 PM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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Comment #85 Removed by Moderator

Comment #86 Removed by Moderator

Comment #87 Removed by Moderator

To: ping jockey

“Very Nice. Looks like a little bit of after market suspension.”

I had the 2016 5.0 and traded for the Grey 2019 Roush with supercharger (RS3).


88 posted on 09/10/2021 7:03:09 AM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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To: ping jockey

“If you drivin that Stang,”

See my #88.


89 posted on 09/10/2021 7:04:14 AM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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To: Red Badger

Add this to iron-air batteries and this could be huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDjgSSO98VI


90 posted on 09/10/2021 8:43:48 AM PDT by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
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To: ping jockey

If you two make that trip on a cold day he won’t get anywhere close to Dothan before he’s out of charge.

Also, you’ll get some gas and be back on the road in 10 minutes. Charging a Tesla takes longer than that, especially if it’s not a high voltage station.

EVs are commuter cars.


91 posted on 09/10/2021 9:16:15 AM PDT by webstersII
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Comment #92 Removed by Moderator

Comment #93 Removed by Moderator

To: Red Badger

William Windom would be proud.


94 posted on 09/10/2021 11:51:04 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Trump - Make America Great Again / Xiden - Make America Grovel Again...)
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To: webstersII

“If you two make that trip on a cold day he won’t get anywhere close to Dothan before he’s out of charge.

Also, you’ll get some gas and be back on the road in 10 minutes. Charging a Tesla takes longer than that, especially if it’s not a high voltage station.”

According to real world data (32 deg) I could make Dothan. 10 minutes to top off enough to make it to PC.


95 posted on 09/10/2021 11:54:28 AM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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To: ping jockey

“The Roush Mustangs are SSUUUUWWWWEEEET. Ford definitely hit the note on that one.”

750 HP off the Ford Showroom with a five year drive train warranty.


96 posted on 09/10/2021 11:56:27 AM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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To: TexasGator

If it’s really cold outside better not run the heated seats.

If it’s really hot outside better not run the A/C.


97 posted on 09/10/2021 12:04:50 PM PDT by webstersII
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To: webstersII

“If it’s really cold outside better not run the heated seats.

If it’s really hot outside better not run the A/C.”

Why not?


98 posted on 09/10/2021 12:10:06 PM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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To: TexasGator
0-60 means little to anyone.


99 posted on 09/10/2021 12:11:26 PM PDT by CodeToad
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To: CodeToad

“0-60 means little to anyone.”

Range means little to anyone.


100 posted on 09/10/2021 12:15:01 PM PDT by TexasGator (UF)
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