At the end of last year, Germany switched on a new type of massive nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, and it was successfully able to contain a scorching hot blob of helium plasma.
But since then, there's been a big question - is the device working the way it's supposed to? That's pretty crucial when you're talking about a machine that could potentially maintain controlled nuclear fusion reactions one day, and thankfully, the answer is yes.
A team of researchers from the US and Germany have now confirmed that the Wendelstein 7-X (W 7-X) stellerator is producing the super-strong, twisty, 3D magnetic fields that its design predicted, with "unprecedented accuracy". The researchers found an error rate less than one in 100,000.
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Tests Confirm That Germany's Massive Nuclear Fusion Machine Really Works
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(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:08PM
So... this experiment was to get a non-reactive plasma contained.
That's a crucial step to any fusion device, but we can count on the broader media, if they cover it at all, to do so in hyperbolic terms. "ENERGY CRISIS RESOLVED!"
(Score: 3, Informative) by lcklspckl on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:22PM
From TFA:
Despite the fact that the machine successfully controlled helium plasma in December last year, and then the more challenging hydrogen plasma in February, no one had shown that the magnetic field was actually working as it should be.
This experiment was to see that the magnetic fields were constructed correctly. It already works apparently for containing plasma. They just wanted to see if they were doing/did it right.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:25PM
Wait, they want to check their containment before setting off a fusion reaction... What's the fun in that?
(Score: 5, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:40PM
Sadly, life isn't like sci-fi, and "containment" doesn't mean "preventing a nuclear explosion" but is instead a requisite state for the plasma to be in before fusion is even possible.
H-Bombs essentially use a small fission explosion as containment for the tritium-deuterium reaction that fuels the big boom.
It turns out to be really really really hard to keep particles with the same charge in close proximity.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:47PM
Not just in proximity of each other, but far away from walls, windings and people which wouldn't be very happy to meet them up close, even if there aren't too many of them for now.
I like calling the fission igniter explosion a "containment". A 100t hydraulic press is also a container, I guess.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @02:41AM
"Containment" (in this context) refers to its relationship to the object being contained.
A press is only a container if it is containing something in that might come out...
I nuclear fission reactor that fails to contain plasma is just a giant, incredible expensive metal donut...
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday December 07 2016, @03:13AM
IIRC, I think the fun is when you turn off the containment grid. BOOM!
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday December 07 2016, @04:20AM
That's when you call Ghost Busters!
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 4, Funny) by Bogsnoticus on Wednesday December 07 2016, @05:54AM
But if Chris answers the phone, hang up. Who wants the "B" team?
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Webweasel on Wednesday December 07 2016, @11:56AM
The A Team were cancelled in 1987
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday December 07 2016, @04:50PM
Alternately, they should think about contacting Dr Otto Octavius for assistance.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:41PM
Well, to be honest, even without this, the energy "crisis" has been been resolved for a very long time. The only remaining problem is bad management, and a disagreement over the price. Those are the direct cause of any "crisis".
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Funny) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday December 07 2016, @04:16AM
The only remaining problem is bad management, and a disagreement over the price.
That sounds a lot like prostitution. :-)
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:18AM
No, it was to measure, using nothing more than a beam of electrons, whether the magnetic field had the right properties such that they should expect to maintain containment of a plasma.
They've reached the "looks like one bit of it should work" stage.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday December 06 2016, @11:46PM
And zey said I vos mad!
The researchers found an error rate less than one in 100,000.
Kinda need to know the typical consequences of one "error" to put that in some perspective...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @12:16PM
Well for every 100,000 seconds the thing runs, you can expect it to fail catastrophically. Such accuracy.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday December 07 2016, @01:23PM
No, it means you can only ever build 99,999 of them. The next one you build will go "pop" in a spectacular fashion.
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday December 07 2016, @02:40PM
I clicked a zillion times and read, well, skimmed, the papers and the engineering design predicting the magnetic field matched what they measured on a meter across the whole volume to around 5 or so digits of precision on the meter.
I remember doing annoying differential calculus in quantitative chemical analysis class like a quarter century ago to do error analysis so you can measure some some electrochemistry thingy result a bunch of times and then turn the std deviation of that measurement into error bars for the calculated result. You can't just say 5% error in is 5% error out when the transfer function is some whacky exponential or whatever such that 5% high on the input means 50% high on the output or who knows. Of course you can solve numerically but you're supposed to "gain insight on error minimization" by analyzing the functions. Sometimes the math was awful and you couldn't solve it, or at least we couldn't, if it was for something weird like lab temperature or whatever. The point of this reminiscence is I bet the overall plant is so complicated that there's no way to turn magnetic uniformity into a delta of economic profit if it were a generating plant (which it isn't). Or if there is one its probably made entirely of hand waving.
It is a pretty good measure of coolness. In EE stuff like these magnets and their power supplies its normal to operate across a zillion orders of magnitude for voltage or current but using typical mfgr tolerances you're lucky to get 3 figures of useful reliable data, and they get like 5 or 6 depending on how you pencil whip the statistics, so this must have been one hell of a cuckoo cuckoo clock to build that precisely and accurately.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dlb on Wednesday December 07 2016, @12:08AM
True, the 150-million-degree blob of plasma currently being held in place is only a tenth of a gram, and fusion as an energy source is still far into the future, but the ride there is a spectacular one of brilliant minds doing some really clever things.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @12:27AM
If we get this practical, and hook it up to an EM-drive, we'd practically be Trekkin!
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Demena on Wednesday December 07 2016, @12:55AM
Might not need it. The most viable theory behind the EM drive suggests some control of interia might be possible, and that it can vary. Should be able to produce power from that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @01:51AM
Yeah, they got fusion working.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday December 07 2016, @02:32AM
Lemme grab my marshmallows. Aww dammit, the stick burned and the marshmallow fell into the fire.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Wednesday December 07 2016, @03:46AM
Everything is proceeding according to the plan. Fusion is still twenty to thirty years of expensive research away, exactly like it has been for the last sixty years. It is like the cure to cancer, they ever announce it is done and the money dries up.
Ok, I'm being extra cynical today. Really, it is good engineering, just wanting to see some actual results for a change.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @05:38PM
There is a reason it is always 20 years away. See this image [imgur.com].
Note I have not fact-checked the numbers provided.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @11:43AM
Or will it be Castle Bravo?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l18dKSlzOlM [youtube.com]