Posted on 09/11/2018 6:19:50 AM PDT by BenLurkin
A long-time puzzle in the effort to capture the power of fusion on Earth is how to lessen or eliminate a common instability that occurs in the plasma called edge localized modes (ELMs). Just as the sun releases enormous bursts of energy in the form of solar flares, so flare-like bursts of ELMs can slam into the walls of doughnut-shaped tokamaks that house fusion reactions, potentially damaging the walls of the reactor.
To control these bursts, scientists disturb the plasma with small magnetic ripples called resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) that distort the smooth, doughnut shape of the plasma—releasing excess pressure that lessens or prevents ELMs from occurring. The hard part is producing just the right amount of this 3-D distortion to eliminate the ELMs without triggering other instabilities and releasing too much energy that, in the worst case, can lead to a major disruption that terminates the plasma.
...
Physicist Jong-Kyu Park of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), working with a team of collaborators from the United States and the National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI) in Korea, have successfully predicted the entire set of beneficial 3-D distortions for controlling ELMs without creating more problems. Researchers validated these predictions on the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) facility, one of the world's most advanced superconducting tokamaks, located in Daejeon, South Korea.
Researchers reduced the complexity of the calculations when they realized that the number of ways the plasma can distort is actually far fewer than the range of possible 3-D fields that can be applied to the plasma. By working backwards, from distortions to 3-D fields, the authors calculated the most effective fields for eliminating ELMs. The KSTAR experiments confirmed the predictions with remarkable accuracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
That’s Hedey
and framistats.
They have probably considered this, but how about getting away from the thermal conversion process, heating water to produce steam to turn turbines, and use the plasma movement to induce a current via magnetic coupling. The power can be transferred via the magnetic field.
The problem might be the erratic nature of the induced current. But can be overcome.
magnetic field containment was very important in the deployment of the nether regions.
I just read another article the other day that was talking about fusion being a reality in... you guessed it... 25 years.
Necessity is the mother of invention? Fusion us not a priority for us.
Thorium.
The long term answer to safe nuclear power.
It just doesn’t go “boom!”
Is this going to mess with my etch-a- sketch?
It isn’t as dangerous as you might think. IF we got fusion working, in the event of a containment failure, it would certainly destroy things in the immediate vicinity of the reactor, but it isn’t a city-busting event. Without the pressure of the containment field, the plasma would very quickly dissipate. Unhealthy to stand beside in the event of a failure, to be sure. But no Chernobyl.
"Predicted"... so, computer models... Unfortunately, reality often has other plans. I wouldn't count on this just yet.
Priority or not, the U.S. has sunk tens of billions of dollars into this research. Sure would be nice if we got some results.
Agreed. Like cancer, we have put billions into research and have little to show for it. I am not very confident in scientists.
Warning! Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Necessity is the mother of invention?
No, that was Zappa.
This is a breakthrough. Now fusion power will only be 20 years away.
On the subject of cancer, yes, that's something else I've heard the same tired platitudes bandied about for over half a century. Nothing has changed.
But on that front, I do believe there are advances in treatment that we 'little people' just aren't privy to. An example of this is a friend of mine who died a couple of years ago at age 65, of the same exact type of brain cancer that ex-President Jimmy Carter had. He went overseas and was cured in a matter of months. My friend, lacking that special treatment, died horribly.
Tells you things.
It has always struck me as an oddity of science that we
are using nuclear power to boil water.
If we only could do that and make a reactor small enough
to weigh less than a tender of coal, steam trains could
make a comeback.
A direct nuclear to electric should be possible too.
Well at least they haven't turned it into a giant Muslim outreach program.
Thus problem with the Tokamak is why they are developing the Stellarator. This is on my Facebook page... so sorry if you are Facebook challenged.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155187110820108&id=100864590107
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.