Mind-bogging Wendelstein 7-X reactor designed by a supercomputer, a device known as a stellarator, might save Nuclear Fusion. Watch the time lapse of the construction…
The Wendelstein 7-X, that took 19 years, over 1 billion euro and 1.1 million work hours, it may light a new way to fusion reactors, and produce great amount of energy from hydrogen.
The new stellarator reactor created at Max Planck Institute in Germany, unlike anything built before, similar to the tokamak, when completed will be the world’s largest fusion device of this type.
A great deal of theory and computation effort was invested to optimise the new towisted magnetic field for Wendelstein 7-X, so as to overcome the disadvantages of previous classical stellarators.
The previous design of doughnut (torus) shape of the magnetic field cage, to trap superheated gasses, poses a problem: “the rings that create the magnetic field are closer together on the inside of the torus, so the magnetic field is stronger there and weaker along the outer rim.”
The new structure composed of single coils allows the magnetic field to be shaped in detail.
Some facts about W7-x to be aware of –
In 2019 the W7-x team will begin to use deuterium instead of hydrogen or helium to produce actual fusion reactions inside the machine, but in its current configuration and without D-T fusion fuel, it won’t be able to create more energy than the experiment needs to run. It is currently very improbable that W7-x will ever run on D-T fusion fuel, or will ever produce break-even energy as a result. W7-x is not designed with materials and structure to withstand the neutrons that would be produced by use of D-T fuel. To raise the expectations of the public that W7-x will actually produce more energy from fusion than the energy it consumes from the power grid is misleading.
Public affairs advisors hired by W7-x managers frequently omit mentioning these facts in their press releases – when regularly repeated over a period of years this creates unrealistic expectations on the part of the public and is a deceptive practice and displays low standards of honesty.
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The truth –
No fusion has actually occurred in W7-x to date, the experiment is still in an engineering verification mode of operation with helium plasma. Deuterium fusion fuel, will not be tried until around 2019, 2-3 years from now. W7-x does not have facilities for safely using and storing Tritium so Deuterium-Tritium fuel is not likely to ever be used on this experiment and as a result, break even energy will never be achieved by W7-x.
W7-x is a plasma confinement experiment whose objective is to confine low ion density plasma for a longer period of time than other Magnetic Confinement Fusion experiments.
surely it’s mind-boggling
I love the idea, the determination and I surely hope the experiment works with no set backs