7 ms·

The heat capacity of the plasma is actually fairly low. So while it might take a but of wall material, it would cool very quickly, electrons would get captures,

The heat capacity of the plasma is actually fairly low. So while it might take a but of wall material, it would cool very quickly, electrons would get captures, and you are left with a bit of gas at rather low pressure.

marathonian 6y ago
Non-rhetorical: So what's the point of this experiment? Seems like harnessing its energy will not be very effective based on how quickly it dissipates
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  Think of it just like fire. Fire will also give you almost no energy if you physically scoop it up. Instead you leave the fire where it is, continually generating heat, and you capture what pours off. Or you pump in fuel, ignite it, and exhaust it over and over at a high speed, like in an engine.
- foota 6y ago
  There is little energy stored in the gas, but it produces lots of energy. I.e., every second the gas might produce a megawatt second of energy, but only have the heat capacity to store 1 kilowatt second. Numbers may not be to scale but you get the idea. I'm also not sure how this stays stable. I guess that if the gas gets hotter the process breaks down? Mayb the volume expands within the confinement and the reaction rate goes down as a result?
SamBam 6y ago
But surely the whole point of this is to eventually create a lot of steam, right? So hopefully it will have enough energy to do that.
andi999 6y ago
What is actually the plan to harvest the energy (how to get the heat to a steam engine or whatever and generate electricity?)
- njarboe 6y ago
  Deuterium/Tritium fusion produces neutrons that will escape the magnetic fields and hit the surrounding machine producing heat but also damage. This shield around the machine absorbing the neutrons will have a circulating fluid that will remove the heat to run a steam or other type of generator. We don't really know how to build this part of the reactor right now, but some metals have the ability to self heal and people think this shield should be possible to build that has a decent lifespan. This is a part of fusion reactors that could be researched right now in parallel with other problems, but there has not yet been funding to build a high level neutron source facility to do the research. This is one fact of many that shows, I think, that national governments are not really interested in fusion energy succeeding.
  - ISL 6y ago
    Are the SNS or research reactors not able to simulate the necessary neutron flux?
    - njarboe 6y ago
      My father was a plasma physicist that researched controlled fusion and he told me that current neutron sources were not useful for this. I think was a combination of the energy spectrum of the neutrons, the flux power, and the physical size/shape of the target area.

marathonian 6y ago

Non-rhetorical: So what's the point of this experiment? Seems like harnessing its energy will not be very effective based on how quickly it dissipates

Dylan16807 6y ago
Think of it just like fire. Fire will also give you almost no energy if you physically scoop it up. Instead you leave the fire where it is, continually generating heat, and you capture what pours off. Or you pump in fuel, ignite it, and exhaust it over and over at a high speed, like in an engine.
foota 6y ago
There is little energy stored in the gas, but it produces lots of energy. I.e., every second the gas might produce a megawatt second of energy, but only have the heat capacity to store 1 kilowatt second. Numbers may not be to scale but you get the idea. I'm also not sure how this stays stable. I guess that if the gas gets hotter the process breaks down? Mayb the volume expands within the confinement and the reaction rate goes down as a result?

SamBam 6y ago

But surely the whole point of this is to eventually create a lot of steam, right? So hopefully it will have enough energy to do that.

andi999 6y ago

What is actually the plan to harvest the energy (how to get the heat to a steam engine or whatever and generate electricity?)

njarboe 6y ago
Deuterium/Tritium fusion produces neutrons that will escape the magnetic fields and hit the surrounding machine producing heat but also damage. This shield around the machine absorbing the neutrons will have a circulating fluid that will remove the heat to run a steam or other type of generator. We don't really know how to build this part of the reactor right now, but some metals have the ability to self heal and people think this shield should be possible to build that has a decent lifespan. This is a part of fusion reactors that could be researched right now in parallel with other problems, but there has not yet been funding to build a high level neutron source facility to do the research. This is one fact of many that shows, I think, that national governments are not really interested in fusion energy succeeding.
- ISL 6y ago
  Are the SNS or research reactors not able to simulate the necessary neutron flux?
  - njarboe 6y ago
    My father was a plasma physicist that researched controlled fusion and he told me that current neutron sources were not useful for this. I think was a combination of the energy spectrum of the neutrons, the flux power, and the physical size/shape of the target area.