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Nuclear Fusion Power Without Regular Tokamaks Or Stellarators:
When it comes to nuclear fusion, the most well-known reactor type today is no doubt the tokamak, due to its relatively straight-forward concept of plasma containment. That's not to say that there aren't other ways to accomplish nuclear fusion in a way that could conceivably be used in a commercial power plant in the near future.
As we covered previously, another fairly well-known type of fusion reactor is the stellarator, which much like the tokamak, has been around since the 1950s. There are other reactor types from that era, like the Z-pinch, but they seem to have all fallen into obscurity. That is not to say that research on Z-pinch reactors has ceased, or that other reactor concepts — some involving massive lasers — haven't been investigated or even built since then.
In this article we'll take a look at a range of nuclear fusion reactor types that definitely deserve a bit more time in the limelight.
[...] Inertial Confinement Fusion
[...] Magnetic Confinement Fusion
[...] All the Other Designs
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:05PM (8 children)
I.E. Something that works and is more than just a novelty.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:11PM (3 children)
Vague enough that I'd say, for example, the Lawerenceville Plasma Physics' Focus Fusion device [lppfusion.com] counts. The fact that they're very public with their engineering changes and experimental results is probably a offset by the fact that their head scientist is a(maybe the) plasma cosmology fringe nutter.
But the engineering work do seems to be sound, and the results of their experiments seem to be largely in compliance with the underlying plasma models used for z-pinch machines.
H-B is a pipe dream, though.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:14PM
H1B is easy to get however.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:38PM (1 child)
I would say this quote from their site still puts them in the novelty category.
https://lppfusion.com/oscillations-down-fusion-yield-up/ [lppfusion.com]
Something that's only good in the lab is a novelty. At best it's a functional prototype. Still, a functional prototype, is only good, if it then leads to a successful product.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:43PM
I don't entirely understand your reasoning, but I also don't think there's anything to gain by trying to convince you of something different.
Thank you for your clarification.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:12PM (3 children)
Agree.
Demonstrating that it is possible to generate power is great. Being able to generate even a bit of net positive power is a big step. And I congratulate all the people and hard work that go into these advances. So please (people working on fusion) don't take this the wrong way.
Nuclear fusion has always been just a few decades away since I was in high school. As someone not working on nuclear fusion, I will be excited when there is a prototype power plant that can generate at some level of scale. Even a few dozen homes would be a huge advance.
Meanwhile I eagerly await my flying car. With the self driving option. Oh, and Mr. Fusion too.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:18PM (2 children)
The graph about fusion being "always 50 years away" [external-preview.redd.it]
(Score: 1) by oumuamua on Tuesday February 18 2020, @05:52PM (1 child)
That graph only goes to 2013
What is the *CURRENT* state of Fusion funding?
(Score: 3, Informative) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 18 2020, @07:20PM
Well, I was doing a lot of original research looking through budget proposals to try and figure out where fusion research is actually allocated.
But I finally found a number someone else put together: 631 million 2019 dollars [aip.org], which is apparently 551 million in 2013 dollars.