DOE and MIT Are Working on a Nuclear Fusion Reactor:
The U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is working with the private industry to develop a cutting-edge project to make nuclear fusion commercially viable. The device, called "SPARC" is being developed through a spinoff startup, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, from MIT.
[...] The project hopes to nail down the problem of leakage of "alpha particles" that are generated by nuclear fusion reactions from reactors like that used by the "SPARC" project. The project is a part public, part privately funded project that makes use of DOE grants to support their efforts to develop high-performance fusion grade plasmas using a tokamak-type reactor.
[...] The key to mitigating this problem is to use specially designed superconducting magnets and make the reactor more compact in size, so the team behind the "SPARC" project believes. By reducing the size of the reactor and using better magnets, the reactor should be able to operate at higher fields and stresses than existing reactors.
This should also enable the design and construction of smaller and less-expensive fusion facilities. This, however, assumes that fast alpha particles created in fusion reactions can be contained long enough to keep the plasma hot.
"Our research indicates that they can be," PPPL physicist Gerrit Kramer said. Kramer is a key participant in the project through the DOE Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program.
"We found that the alpha particles are indeed well confined in the SPARC design," explained Kramer, coauthor of a paper in the Journal of Plasma Physics that reports the findings.
Journal Reference:
S. D. Scott, G. J. Kramer, E. A. Tolman, et al. Fast-ion physics in SPARC [open], Journal of Plasma Physics (DOI: 10.1017/S0022377820001087)
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Saturday January 02 2021, @11:34PM (6 children)
let's see if I remember physics class from 25 years ago...
so they're capturing the alpha particles using magnets, and like all helium the shit easily leaks. and these things are charged so it'll damage things. so... why not take some of that energy the reactor is generating, make some static electricity (perhaps by rubbing many cats together or something with metal wires), and forget about it.
at that point the alpha will get it's precious electrons, make a neutral helium, and the most damage it can do is making people sound funny. and if they're having problems with this in current reactors, just do that too to existing reactors.
or do they need the alpha particles for something?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 02 2021, @11:40PM (1 child)
If they collect enough alpha particles they can make an alpha male who will crush protons together with his bare hands. And the betas will all weep.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Sunday January 03 2021, @12:20AM
this is incorrect. what I described is crushing alpha particles with beta particles.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2021, @02:25AM (1 child)
Whatever, homo. Come back when you have a fucking clue. Until then, STFU.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2021, @04:32AM
I beg all soylentils to mod THE fat fucker down please
Also, read below why he always talk about Stan Lee.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday January 03 2021, @10:54PM (1 child)
Heat. If I recall correctly the particles carry energy away from the contained plasma cooling it.
Alpha particles are pretty harmless for the most part. Clothing, skin (outer skin cells are already dead), even a sheet of paper can stop most of them. Only time they might be dangerous is if you inhale or ingest an isotope that emits them in which case cells can be damaged due to direct exposure to them. Or when they are at VERY high energies, like Cosmic Rays.
For those who wish more info about Alpha particles [wikipedia.org]
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Sunday January 03 2021, @11:13PM
well, hold on here. I'm not a nuclear reactor expert, but I believe the heat from the alpha particle would still be there. They're talking about capturing them with a magnet. I don't see how them getting stuck to the magnet gives off any heat. It's just a helium ion. While they can get stopped by a piece of paper, they got a +2 on them, so they'll damage stuff over long term when they build up, just from being an ion. For example pulling some electrons off Iron and making rust.
so at whatever point in the design they think of putting in a magnet to capture them, I'm suggesting running some current to make static electricity, which will make them into a neutral helium, then just let it escape.
But if you know, please explain how alpha particles are used for heat here. A neutron would, but how does a helium ion make heat? If you're talking just the (mv^2)/2 heat from their speed, that'll still be there if they pick up two electrons and become neutral.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 02 2021, @11:37PM (7 children)
Wake me up when the title reads: DOE and MIT have a Working Nuclear Fusion Reactor
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 02 2021, @11:48PM
Stop posting zero-content "tech news," please. Makes SN look like a link farm, not even clickbaity.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2021, @01:08AM (1 child)
Yes, the news here is "no news here".
News would be, MIT figures out how to fuse two atoms and harvest the resutling energy without significant damage to the reactor chamber.
Bonus would be it was actually some undergrad that figured out how to do it.
Double bonus would be that the budget for the experiment was sub $1m.
Historically, I don't see that these big science things are doing much more than advance the state of the art for feeding scientists?
A working power plant is downright crude at it's core. (Think fire, wind, water, sunshine, or gathering a bunch of enriched uranium to the same place.)
Holding your fields just right to force a fusion seems wrong.
Really need something more simple.
Could inertial confinement could be just a focused mechanical resonance?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday January 03 2021, @11:20PM
The problem is, the only simple design for a sustained fusion is to put so much hydrogen together that its own gravity compresses it sufficiently to start and sustain a fusion. That design, known as star or sun, works pretty well, however we don't currently have the means to build one ourselves. In particular, it can't be built on Earth because it simply is too big.
Note however that this design also has other drawbacks. In particular, its uncontrolled magnetic fields can cause sporadic intense particle emissions which may turn out to be fatal for our technology (look up “Carrington event”).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 03 2021, @03:01AM (3 children)
This research is done using a cutting edge approach: the tokamak. Time will tell if this design is a winner.
I lay odds on a working reactor in 10 years.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday January 04 2021, @08:44AM (2 children)
Working fusion reactors were always 10 years in future, for the past 60 years at least.
There is not a better indicator of physics being wrong than a fusion reactor.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 04 2021, @01:22PM
Hey, don't blame the physicists! They physics works. They can easily ignite a sustained reaction. The problem is they can't contain and sustain it for more than a few seconds. That's an engineering problem (they probably are stuck because the engineers didn't purchase the "Fusion Design Toolbox" from Mathworks).
Don't let those wankers sully the physics good name.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 04 2021, @07:06PM
Hi, this is the author of the GP post saying this was based on a state of the art approach and that I expected a working power plant in 10 years. I was aiming for a mod of either "Funny" or "Touche", but I got "Interesting" instead. Oh well.