4 ms·

Whatever happened to the German stellarator? Seem to recall Merkel being present for one of the first tests a few years back, ITER seems to get more coverage

sien 8y ago
It's going really well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X It's not, however, something that designed to directly head toward fusion power itself but instead to better understand components that could be improved to make fusion power. In addition now with fusion there are heap of companies trying to get fusion power going in about a decade or so. Probably the most interesting of which are: https://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk/ https://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk/ and https://www.cfs.energy/ https://www.cfs.energy/ Who are both using new developments in high temperature superconducting tape fabrication to increase the magnetic field to get to fusion faster than ITER.
- bencompanion 8y ago
  There was some interesting and encouraging info out of Korea's KSTAR tokamak recently: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180910111302.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180910111302.h... - the team there have been working on stabilising the plasma inside tokamaks, and have had pretty good success by the sounds of things.
- bdamm 8y ago
  Why not the vortex compression types of "reactors"? a.la http://generalfusion.com/ http://generalfusion.com/
  - nielsbot 8y ago
    Do you know how close they are to a "real" reactor? Their website seems light on details about that...
  - pfdietz 8y ago
    General Fusion recently gave up on their original design (a spheromak-type plasma inside an imploding liquid metal vortex.) Instead, they're going to a spherical tokamaka where liquid metal compresses the plasma from the outside. In this new concept, there is now a solid wall on the inside that is not shielded from the plasma by a thick layer of liquid metal. That means power density limits due to limits on wall loading will apply to their reactor, just as they do to conventional DT magnetic fusion reactor schemes. So, the major theoretical engineering advantage of their idea has been lost.
    - moneytide1 8y ago
      That was a large Bezos Foundation investment wasn't it?
- wiz21c 8y ago
  I don't understand anything to fusion (except basic stuff), but I like these : https://lppfusion.com/ https://lppfusion.com/ They publish results often and it's quite entertaining.
mtgx 8y ago
ITER always gets more coverage of non-news about the project because it has had a lot more years to get good at that (getting the word out, not making fusion, that is). We'll probably get 3 different other projects to reach fusion before ITER accomplishes that.
azernik 8y ago
They're working on different problems - Wendelstein is working on cheaper and smaller plasma containment, while ITER is focused on operations and materials properties.

sien 8y ago

It's going really well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X It's not, however, something that designed to directly head toward fusion power itself but instead to better understand components that could be improved to make fusion power. In addition now with fusion there are heap of companies trying to get fusion power going in about a decade or so. Probably the most interesting of which are: https://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk/ https://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk/ and https://www.cfs.energy/ https://www.cfs.energy/ Who are both using new developments in high temperature superconducting tape fabrication to increase the magnetic field to get to fusion faster than ITER.

bencompanion 8y ago
There was some interesting and encouraging info out of Korea's KSTAR tokamak recently: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180910111302.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180910111302.h... - the team there have been working on stabilising the plasma inside tokamaks, and have had pretty good success by the sounds of things.
bdamm 8y ago
Why not the vortex compression types of "reactors"? a.la http://generalfusion.com/ http://generalfusion.com/
- nielsbot 8y ago
  Do you know how close they are to a "real" reactor? Their website seems light on details about that...
- pfdietz 8y ago
  General Fusion recently gave up on their original design (a spheromak-type plasma inside an imploding liquid metal vortex.) Instead, they're going to a spherical tokamaka where liquid metal compresses the plasma from the outside. In this new concept, there is now a solid wall on the inside that is not shielded from the plasma by a thick layer of liquid metal. That means power density limits due to limits on wall loading will apply to their reactor, just as they do to conventional DT magnetic fusion reactor schemes. So, the major theoretical engineering advantage of their idea has been lost.
  - moneytide1 8y ago
    That was a large Bezos Foundation investment wasn't it?
wiz21c 8y ago
I don't understand anything to fusion (except basic stuff), but I like these : https://lppfusion.com/ https://lppfusion.com/ They publish results often and it's quite entertaining.

mtgx 8y ago

ITER always gets more coverage of non-news about the project because it has had a lot more years to get good at that (getting the word out, not making fusion, that is). We'll probably get 3 different other projects to reach fusion before ITER accomplishes that.

azernik 8y ago

They're working on different problems - Wendelstein is working on cheaper and smaller plasma containment, while ITER is focused on operations and materials properties.