4 ms·

Yes that has a big impact. The quality of a tokamak (as meassured by the triple product density, temperature, and confinement time) goes up like B^3 (IF I remem

Yes that has a big impact. The quality of a tokamak (as meassured by the triple product density, temperature, and confinement time) goes up like B^3 (IF I remember correctly, I do plasma physics but not fusion stuff) and the fussion power goes up like B^4 or something like that. So larger magnetic fields help a lot. But back when ITER was designed we did not have such strong superconductors yet. PS: Google found DOI 10.1088/0029-5515/56/6/066003 but I didn't read it carefully.

DubiousPusher 6y ago
Is there a successor to iter already being worked out on paper that takes into account new developments?
- petschge 6y ago
  There is things such as SPARC by Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) using rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconductors. Not quite the scale of ITER, but it should give us some first experience working with that material. If that works out the next step would be ARC [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor
- twic 6y ago
  Yes - the sequence is ITER, DEMO, then PROTO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEMOnstration_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEMOnstration_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTO_(fusion_reactor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTO_(fusion_reactor)
- wcarss 6y ago
  Yes, the video above is basically about this, and is really worth watching -- it's a fantastic talk. I'm pretty sure that Commonwealth Fusion Systems[0] is the entity affiliated with MIT that has been doing work to prove out the recently available higher magnetic field strength superconducting materials and apply them to tokamak construction to bring size down dramatically. They had a bunch of press in 2018/2019 when they first got underway[1], and it looks like they've received a lot more investment over the last few years and likely made quite some progress since then[2]. 0 - https://cfs.energy/ https://cfs.energy/ 1 - https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/03/09/new-approach-fusion-energy-starts-today/cc7kpF93xLaopO5xdobKIO/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/03/09/new-approach-... (op-ed in the Boston Globe by a Vice President at MIT) 2 - https://cfs.energy/press/ https://cfs.energy/press/

DubiousPusher 6y ago

Is there a successor to iter already being worked out on paper that takes into account new developments?

petschge 6y ago
There is things such as SPARC by Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) using rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconductors. Not quite the scale of ITER, but it should give us some first experience working with that material. If that works out the next step would be ARC [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARC_fusion_reactor
twic 6y ago
Yes - the sequence is ITER, DEMO, then PROTO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEMOnstration_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEMOnstration_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTO_(fusion_reactor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTO_(fusion_reactor)
wcarss 6y ago
Yes, the video above is basically about this, and is really worth watching -- it's a fantastic talk. I'm pretty sure that Commonwealth Fusion Systems[0] is the entity affiliated with MIT that has been doing work to prove out the recently available higher magnetic field strength superconducting materials and apply them to tokamak construction to bring size down dramatically. They had a bunch of press in 2018/2019 when they first got underway[1], and it looks like they've received a lot more investment over the last few years and likely made quite some progress since then[2]. 0 - https://cfs.energy/ https://cfs.energy/ 1 - https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/03/09/new-approach-fusion-energy-starts-today/cc7kpF93xLaopO5xdobKIO/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/03/09/new-approach-... (op-ed in the Boston Globe by a Vice President at MIT) 2 - https://cfs.energy/press/ https://cfs.energy/press/