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As far as I can tell, this is just a magnetic mirror with neutral beam injection. The problem with mirror devices has and always will be plasma squirting out o
by drjesusphd 11y ago
As far as I can tell, this is just a magnetic mirror with neutral beam injection.
The problem with mirror devices has and always will be plasma squirting out of the sides. Sure, at any given moment, that may represent a small fraction of the plasma (only particles that have a certain velocity will exit). But collisions eventually change particles' velocity, eventually dooming them to the path outward.
It looks like they're relying upon the neutral beams to replenish particles that leave. That takes energy, and is one of the primary heating mechanisms in tokamaks. Whether they can break even with such a scheme is entirely unknown since they're not providing details.
More power to them, but I remain skeptical until they actually release details (this hardly counts). If it's secret, it's not science.
- marktangotango 11y agoHe talks about recirculation, maybe they figured out a way to plug the ends? Ie if the plasma is positive charge, then would placing negative chargs at the sides seal it? I don't know if this was ever tried.
- drjesusphd 11y agoPlasma is almost always quasi-neutral. It's very hard to separate positive and negative charges, especially along the field line. Electrons move very quickly to cancel out any excess charge.