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posted by martyb on Friday November 13 2015, @08:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the Mmmmm-tokamaks! dept.

Physicists at US and Chinese research firms have discovered a means of suppressing a persistent instability that has hampered fusion reaction research. The instability, commonly referred to as the "kink mode" instability, made controlling the plasma temperature impossible without constant external influences. Now by allowing the plasma to operate closer to the containment unit's wall the plasma is constrained by its own pressure and the fusion reaction comes one step closer to self-sustaining.

The team is led by Dr. Xianzu Gong of ASIPP and Dr. Andrea Garofalo of General Atomics (GA) in San Diego.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-11-us-china-fusion-team.html; an abstract is available.


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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday November 13 2015, @10:22PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday November 13 2015, @10:22PM (#262858) Journal

    Here's hoping they'll use this joint knowledge for good... instead of evil.

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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday November 14 2015, @03:16AM

    by frojack (1554) on Saturday November 14 2015, @03:16AM (#263013) Journal

    Here's hoping somebody here can explain that abstract to us.

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    • (Score: 5, Informative) by gnuman on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:35AM

      by gnuman (5013) on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:35AM (#263083)

      Well, the phys.org explains it quite well. Abstract like that are not for general public, they are not even for random physicists. That abstract is for high energy plasma physicists, which is probably a few dozen to few hundred people out of 7,000,000,000.

      Anyway, here's explanation of what Beta is.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_%28plasma_physics%29 [wikipedia.org]

      Plasmas are ionized gas, which means they have charge. Since they fly around, that is a current and hence plasmas make their own magnetic fields, and electric fields. Thus, confining them with a magnetic field causes issues, like the field produced by the plasma changes the external field and vice-versa. And to make reactors, you want high plasma densities, so high currents. But then this caused "kinks" in plasma (plasma would "bend" and "snap", possibly hitting vessel walls and generally lose energy), where plasma became unstable for unknown reasons,

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_stability#Plasma_instabilities [wikipedia.org]

      and these guys seemed to found a way of mitigating that problem.

      PS. No, I don't really understand the abstract, but I'm not a high energy plasma physicist!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:01PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:01PM (#263315)

        "That abstract is for high energy plasma physicists, which is probably a few dozen to few hundred people out of 7,000,000,000."
        so here's the REAL problem?():"p-shaw! who cares 'bout that? the sun does all the fusion I need so let me go play my playboXstation now".
        -
        not sure if it is relevant or anything but it seems there exists only two (and a half) ways for the "secret sauce": either use physical permanent magnets, or use direct-constant electricity in a geometrically shaped coil (cheat) or make the electrical coil really really cool, which still seems to be moving electrons but now kindda frozen into a permanent magnet.

        not sure how atoms are ever going to fuse (crash together) if they run around a circle on parallel tracks (in the donut).
        does running the plasma closer to wall and thus the source of the magnetic field give them a less parallel track but more like a corkscrew track and thus more chances to "meet" each other? *shrug*

      • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Sunday November 15 2015, @12:53AM

        by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Sunday November 15 2015, @12:53AM (#263519) Journal

        Your first paragraph made me think of a very good and relevant comedy sketch. If you have two minutes Google for 'armstrong and Miller physics special'

        Would provide a link but this phone doesn't make copy pasting a url particularly easy