[HN Gopher] The Wendelstein 7-X concept proves its efficiency ___________________________________________________________________ The Wendelstein 7-X concept proves its efficiency Author : Tomte Score : 110 points Date : 2021-08-17 16:07 UTC (6 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.ipp.mpg.de) (TXT) w3m dump (www.ipp.mpg.de) | ChuckMcM wrote: | As I've said before I love this project. The engineering is top | notch and they are just knocking down the unknowns one after | another. | | It is for me a wonderful example of how a large engineering | project to build a new thing should be approached. Lay out all of | the questions that are currently unanswered for which the answer | will affect the next step. Then start building with the goal of | answering the questions in dependency order so that the next | question/build can incorporate your new understanding given the | answer to the previous question. Iterate until you've answered | all the engineering questions and you're sitting there looking at | a fully functional device that does this new thing. | sp332 wrote: | How is energy extracted from the reaction? Once you get a bunch | of energetic particles flying around, how to do you get from | there to electricity? | light_hue_1 wrote: | Same way it is pretty much everywhere, including in nuclear | power plants. Heat water and use the steam to run a turbine. | HPsquared wrote: | I think it basically heats up the walls of the chamber, from | which you can use the heat to make electricity in the usual | way. | willis936 wrote: | Stellarator theory has been booming for the past 20-40 years, but | very few machines have been made to push it forward. I'd love to | see a mid-scale (sub 1 BnUSD) HTS machine be built as a platform | to develop coil winding techniques and test turbulent transport | models. | _Microft wrote: | If I remember correctly, you replied to one of my comments on | fusion power in the past and that you are actually working in | research yourself. | | Most fusion projects seem to take years between major steps. Do | you think a rapid-iteration approach (like what SpaceX is doing | to develop Starship) could work for fusion research? | willis936 wrote: | I'm stepping out to appease the two-body problem. | | My impression is that a Manhattan Project for fusion would be | successful. We already have all the technology needed to make | a successful reactor. The reason things like HTS coil winding | are moving so slowly to scale up is because there is no | market for it. How could anyone invest in something with no | return? | | If a lot of money did suddenly become available then | innovative and radical platforms could be seriously | considered. Things like stellarator platforms designed with | adjustable geometry coils to explore many different | optimizations without needing to build a new machine every | time would be on the table. | | Issues related to first-wall and divertors require large | machines to develop. They are not unsolvable problems, but | those are the ones that need a serious amount of money to | test and develop. Theory is way ahead of experiment here. I | think it would be easier to find the money for these big | machines if the performance metrics of smaller machines | continued to increase. The problem is there isn't enough | money to keep these new small-to-medium machines coming. Look | at the history of FES spending in the DoE budget. | | SPARC might be the community's best chance at convincing the | public that fusion is worth investing in. | drmacak wrote: | As I see it the problem is also in approach to big new | projects. Usually you have long careful preparation to | build something about what you have no clear idea how to do | it, since it was not build before. But investors, in this | case usually government, wants to see some classical | project, with schedule / waterfall but in reality it should | be more, as what mentioned SpaceX is doing. Which as I | understand is fast iteration on unclear solution with clear | goal. But I can understand that investors prefer to have | ordinary projects as it is more classic approach. The issue | is the way it works every time is the same. Project starts | everything is fine. Some small delays on milestones but OK, | then someone finds out that state of project is actually | much worse than expected. Director is fired and the cycle | starts again. On the end there is somehow working somehow | done project. | matmatmatmat wrote: | What do you think about ITER? ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-08-17 23:00 UTC)