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posted by takyon on Monday April 13 2015, @07:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the Big-Magnet dept.

A local affiliate of CBS reports:

General Atomics is scheduled on Friday to unveil a 1,000-ton superconducting electromagnet to be used in a 35-nation fusion energy study. According to General Atomics, the Poway-built device that's powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water will be showcased at a news conference in Poway.

The electromagnet will be used in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor experiments in France, in which scientists will try to create a burning plasma that demonstrates the feasibility of fusion energy. Clean fusion energy has been a holy grail for researchers looking for alternatives to standard nuclear energy and carbon-based fuels. Scientists say fusion energy does not create long-term waste products or meltdown risks.

General Atomics is more well-known for their Predator and Reaper military drones. As much negativity is swirling around these parts about the military industrial complex, there could be much potential benefit from the technological progress General Atomics and others are making. What do you all think?

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday April 13 2015, @10:47AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 13 2015, @10:47AM (#169634) Journal

    this isnt my field but i wouldnt have thought 13T was enough to lift an aircraft carrier?

    Tesla is a unit of magnetic flux density - that is, per unit of surface.
    If you could maintain the same flux density and increase the area, even a 1T magfield would be enough to lift the aircraft carrier.
    The most intense continuous magnetic field produced by an electromagnet is 45 T [nationalmaglab.org] - inside a bore 32 mm in diameter.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 13 2015, @01:47PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 13 2015, @01:47PM (#169706)

    and increase the area

    Large structures are wimpy unless specifically designed to handle point loads, so pulling on any part of an aircraft carrier hard enough to lift it would undoubtedly merely break a part off.

  • (Score: 2) by fleg on Tuesday April 14 2015, @01:58AM

    by fleg (128) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 14 2015, @01:58AM (#170152)

    ah i see. thanks for the info!