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Joint US-China Research Teams Solve One Big Issue with Fusion Reaction

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

thomasdotnet writes:

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: 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*