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Do i understand this right that with the HIT-SI3 they have already built a working dynomak that can generate a surplus of energy, albeit at a small scale, and t
by Mithaldu 12y ago
Do i understand this right that with the HIT-SI3 they have already built a working dynomak that can generate a surplus of energy, albeit at a small scale, and the challenge is to make a bigger one that still works?
- m12k 12y agoGood question - as far as I can tell, the article doesn't say so explicitly, so I assume it's not generating a surplus, since if it did, that would have been the headline. There is however the possibility that the two interesting numbers, required power input and power output, do not grow with the size of the reactor/amount of plasma in the same way, e.g. one function might be quadratic, the other cubic. So it is possible that the current prototype does not generate a surplus, but it might indicate enough about those two functions to indicate that a "slightly" larger version would (assuming no unforeseen technical or physical issues arise). It sounds like it's too early to say though.
- the8472 12y agoLooking at the linked abstract[1] of a paper about their experimental device it seems like they're running their prototype with a helium plasma, which can't produce energy (He-4 fusion processes require a lot more activation energy than various hydrogen processes). So they're mostly testing the plasma physics and rely on projections for the energy yield if actual fusion were to happen. [1] http://absimage.aps.org/image/DPP14/MWS_DPP14-2014-000198.pdf http://absimage.aps.org/image/DPP14/MWS_DPP14-2014-000198.pd...