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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 18 2020, @02:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the playing-with-atoms dept.

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


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:06PM (9 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:06PM (#959556) Journal

    When it comes to nuclear fusion, the most well-known reactor type today

    As embarrassing as this is to say . . .

    The most well-known type of fusion is . . . cold fusion.

    Yes, I know it is no longer the 1990s. But I bet this is still stuck in the public consciousness.

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  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:15PM (8 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:15PM (#959563) Journal

    If we're getting into it about lay public knowledge, it's probably a close race between "the sun" and cold fusion for name recognition.

    • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:18PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:18PM (#959566)

      You're giving the lay public a lot of credit in assuming they know the sun is fusion-powered. More likely 62% believe it was put there by God and is powered by His Eternal Love.

      • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:22PM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:22PM (#959567) Journal

        Yeah, but also they're forgetful idiots who don't remember a month long news cycle from 2 years ago, much less 40.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:41PM (4 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @04:41PM (#959573) Journal

        More likely 62% believe it was put there by God and is powered by His Eternal Love.

        Maybe some might believe it was (by some means) put there by God, powered by fusion balanced against gravitational compression of the core, and that His eternal love might simply be part of why it is there rather than as a means of powering it. And maybe some others believe something else.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday February 18 2020, @05:52PM (3 children)

          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday February 18 2020, @05:52PM (#959605) Journal
          It's powered by clean coal!

          Someone actually worked out how long the sun could shine if it were coal or by the heat of compression of the sun it's - compression won, but only topped out at 2 million years.

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          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @06:03PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18 2020, @06:03PM (#959610)

            We've used up only about 0.3% of that 2 million since God created the world. I really doubt that we need the remaining coal before the end times, but maybe that's it. Maybe the 2 million is exactly the amount of time needed, so that is what God gave us.

            • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday February 18 2020, @11:08PM

              by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday February 18 2020, @11:08PM (#959700)

              Maybe the 2 million is exactly the amount of time needed, so that is what God gave us.

              That depends on which of the many gods you choose.

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday February 18 2020, @08:59PM

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 18 2020, @08:59PM (#959656) Journal

            The clean coal was put there as a challenge for us to strip mine the sun.

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @02:39AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @02:39AM (#959756)

        I mean.

        Is it fusion powered?

        Or fission?

        Or both? Cough.