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I'm talking about Commonwealth and Tokamak Energy, which use fields quite a bit stronger than ITER, taking advantage of newer superconductors than ITER. The re

I'm talking about Commonwealth and Tokamak Energy, which use fields quite a bit stronger than ITER, taking advantage of newer superconductors than ITER. The relevant scaling law is that tokamak energy output goes up with the fourth power of magnetic field strength. According to the presentation I linked, that allows ITER-level output from a reactor a tenth the volume of ITER. Assuming that works out, a reactor somewhere between those two sizes should get us to commercial levels.

ohiovr 5y ago
This kind of goes along with my theme. By the time the expensive experimental reactor is at the end of the planning stage an new magnetic force regime is introduced changing the whole perspective of the experiment. It would be best to scrap those experiments and focus attention on the new technologies because 17 tesla magnets are not the most powerful magnets in the universe and we have a long way to go to find what is possible on our home world. The magnetic field is the foundation of fusion energy at this time sans xray compression.