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ITER plans first plasma for 2025 - do you think it is a coincidence that SPARC is planned for 2025 as well in that release? I think both projects will hit delay
by choeger 5y ago
ITER plans first plasma for 2025 - do you think it is a coincidence that SPARC is planned for 2025 as well in that release? I think both projects will hit delays, but ITER is much further in construction, so I wouldn't bet on SPARC to win that particular race.
But they don't need to, do they? If their claim is sound, they could as well just optimize the magnets and wait for ITER to complete to offer an ITERation (pun very much intended) on the design. The fact that they focus on this weird race against an international research project makes me wonder if SPARC is mostly a vehicle to attract investors.
- TrainedMonkey 5y agoI think biggest downfall of ITER is also why we must do it. The downfall is thus - ITER is huge and that generally implies lots construction delays and cost overruns. But, being huge also means it will be able to study sustaining high volume of plasma for long durations. ITERs plasma density will be comparatively low, and that is where SPARC with stronger magnets comes in. SPARC will produce data on lower volume and limited burn time, but significantly higher plasma density.