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>> if plasma containment fails, easily killing everyone in or near the plant. That couldn't be further from the truth. "Magnetic containment" doesn't mean the

>> if plasma containment fails, easily killing everyone in or near the plant. That couldn't be further from the truth. "Magnetic containment" doesn't mean the magnets are holding in the reaction. The magnets are compressing/heating everything to start and sustain the reaction. Any containment failure will cause the reaction to stop instantly. Letting the plasma touch anything solid, any metal/wood/ceramic, would be like throwing a bucket of ice water on a burning candle. The far more dangerous aspects of this project are the same any any large industrial process: compressed gasses in big tanks. High power electrical lines. Fire. Confined spaces. Gas leaks resulting oxygen displacement. Normal industrial only dangerous to those persons inside the building. But I wouldn't want to have any metal fillings too close to those magnets when they power up. At 20 teslas they might start moving though your head like a bullet.

pfdietz 5y ago
The dangerous thing in the ARC reactor is not the plasma; it's the magnets (most of the mass of the reactor is the steel supports needed to constrain the stored energy) and the titanium hydride neutron shield for the magnets. This shielding is close to the molten salt; at the temperature of that salt TiH2 fully decomposes, releasing its hydrogen gas. There's a lot of hydrogen there.
tsimionescu 5y ago
I exaggerated with "anyone near the plant", but accidentally allowing 800 cubic meters of radioactive plasma/gas starting at 150 million degrees to suddenly expand would certainly hurt any human being it comes into contact with. Hopefully it wouldn't actually be that hard to construct a reinforced concrete shield around the actual reactor to prevent an explosion of the high temp, high pressure, radioactive material from reaching too far into the facility. The reactor and all its complex components would almost certainly be utterly destroyed, so even if no human victims are made, the money will just have to be written off.

pfdietz 5y ago

The dangerous thing in the ARC reactor is not the plasma; it's the magnets (most of the mass of the reactor is the steel supports needed to constrain the stored energy) and the titanium hydride neutron shield for the magnets. This shielding is close to the molten salt; at the temperature of that salt TiH2 fully decomposes, releasing its hydrogen gas. There's a lot of hydrogen there.

tsimionescu 5y ago

I exaggerated with "anyone near the plant", but accidentally allowing 800 cubic meters of radioactive plasma/gas starting at 150 million degrees to suddenly expand would certainly hurt any human being it comes into contact with. Hopefully it wouldn't actually be that hard to construct a reinforced concrete shield around the actual reactor to prevent an explosion of the high temp, high pressure, radioactive material from reaching too far into the facility. The reactor and all its complex components would almost certainly be utterly destroyed, so even if no human victims are made, the money will just have to be written off.