3 ms·
I am not a physicist, but AFAIK the problem is to maintain the plasma in a steady state. This could mean that they will try to keep the plasma stable for 8 minu
by jansan 6y ago
I am not a physicist, but AFAIK the problem is to maintain the plasma in a steady state. This could mean that they will try to keep the plasma stable for 8 minutes until it collapses.
- petschge 6y agoThe characteristic frequencies in the plasma are much higher. Kilohertz and up. The steady state will be reached within seconds, so to the plasma 8 minutes is basically "infinity". But at that point the all the power that is leaking out of the plasma (50MW of heating times a Q of 10 implies that the plasma will output half a GW) will have heated the wall to the limit (and that is with active cooling of the walls). One could beef up the cooling to run at actual steady state (for an hour, or a day or a year), but it would not tell you much extra, so they didn't bother.
- willis936 6y agoTokamaks need a changing current in the central solenoid. So while 8 minutes is infinity for a stellarator, there are important performance benchmarks at 8 seconds, 8 minutes, 8 hours, etc. You trade pulse length for ohmic heating.