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Germany's Wildly Complex Fusion Reactor Is Actually Working
popularmechanics.com ^ | 12/06/2016 | Avery Thompson

Posted on 12/06/2016 3:36:14 PM PST by BenLurkin

The standard design of fusion reactor is called the tokamak reactor, and it involves a ring of magnets that force the nuclear material to travel in a large circle. The stellerator design used by the W7-X reactor adds several twists to the ring to increase stability.

However, the stellerator design is still relatively untested, so a group of researchers spent the past year studying the W7-X reactor to ensure that it was working the way it was supposed to. They found an incredibly small error rate, less than 1 in 100,000, which the researchers characterized as "unprecedented accuracy."

This is good news for the W7-X reactor, which was intended as a proof-of-concept for the stellerator design. Now that the researchers know the accuracy of the reactor's magnetic fields, they can begin building new reactors that focus on efficiency.

Unfortunately, current fusion reactors, including the W7-X, are still not efficient enough to produce more energy than they use. However, the success of W7-X gives the researchers hope that the next generation of fusion reactors will be able to reach that limit.

(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: energy; germany

Credit: YouTube/ Science Magazine
1 posted on 12/06/2016 3:36:14 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Totally elegant design....


2 posted on 12/06/2016 3:38:54 PM PST by Paladin2 (No spellcheck. It's too much work to undo the auto wrong word substitution on mobile devices.)
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To: BenLurkin

Uses more energy than it produces...Cool Graphic though.

In fact, I use more energy watching it than I produce. LOL.


3 posted on 12/06/2016 3:40:25 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: BenLurkin
The Germans plan to sneak them in when introducing the NEWEST twist on the ole hot dog, [Frankfurter, Hamburger]...W7-Xburger!
4 posted on 12/06/2016 3:40:47 PM PST by cloudmountain
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To: Paladin2

Come back and report when they have a working reactor powering the grid.


5 posted on 12/06/2016 3:41:11 PM PST by rottndog ('Live Free Or Die' Ain't just words on a bumber sticker...or a tagline.)
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To: BenLurkin

Amazing stuff really thanks for the thread.


6 posted on 12/06/2016 3:42:12 PM PST by rodguy911 (Go Sarah go! America home of the free because of the brave.)
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To: BenLurkin

Does it offend muslims?


7 posted on 12/06/2016 3:42:54 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: BenLurkin

Why Nuclear Fusion Is Always 30 Years Away
By Nathaniel Scharping | March 23, 2016 11:50 am

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2016/03/23/nuclear-fusion-reactor-research/


8 posted on 12/06/2016 3:44:21 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Hey, whining losers,Trump will just go ahead & make things better for us without you!!!!")
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To: left that other site

In fact, I use more energy watching it than I produce. LOL.

Beans and beer will fix that :)


9 posted on 12/06/2016 3:54:52 PM PST by mistfree (It's a very uncreative man who can't think of more than one way to spell a word.)
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To: mistfree

Ah...Methane! Nature’s powerhouse! :-)


10 posted on 12/06/2016 4:02:08 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: BenLurkin

The ethanol boondoggle similarly uses more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than us generated by using it as a motor fuel but continues with massive taxpayer subsidies


11 posted on 12/06/2016 4:38:36 PM PST by The Great RJ ("Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
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To: BenLurkin

Cool. That’ll totally fit in the engine compartment of my Yukon XL Denali.


12 posted on 12/06/2016 4:41:56 PM PST by Noumenon (Proud Irredeemable Deplorable, heavily armed Infidel. Islam delenda est.)
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To: BenLurkin

The 21st century’s version of the perpetual motion machine.


13 posted on 12/06/2016 4:43:02 PM PST by Venkman (Those that will not hear must be made to feel. - German proverb)
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To: Grampa Dave

Fusion is the flying car of energy production... always 30 years away.


14 posted on 12/06/2016 4:46:16 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: BenLurkin

They should ask Tony Stark for pointers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtntTvuv8Aw


15 posted on 12/06/2016 4:54:19 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (Abortion is what slavery was: immoral but not illegal. Not yet.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

“The Arc Reactor, that was a publicity stunt! Tony come on! We built that thing shut the hippies up! The Arc was never cost effective, we knew that before we built it!”


16 posted on 12/06/2016 5:30:43 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a great life!)
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To: BenLurkin

Great design and animation but operationally needs to pull the electric plug and add fairy dust to get it over the “uses more power than it produces” hump.


17 posted on 12/06/2016 6:04:39 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (The Mafia is a private crime family; whereas, the DOJ is the gov't's political crime family.)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
Thanks for the excellent analogy!

Fusion is the flying car of energy production... always 30 years away.

18 posted on 12/07/2016 8:22:06 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Hey, whining losers,Trump will just go ahead & make things better for us without you!!!!")
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