MIT takes a page from Tony Stark, edges closer to an ARC fusion reactor

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

For the past 20 years, MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) has been experimenting with nuclear fusion through the world's smallest tokamak-type (doughnut-shaped) nuclear fusion device -- the Alcator C-Mod.

 

The goal? To produce the world's smallest fusion reactor -- one that crushes a doughnut-shaped fusion reaction into a 3.3 meter radius -- three of which could power a city the size of Boston.

 

And MIT researchers are getting close to their goal, despite a recent cut in federal funding that could slow their progress.

 

The lessons already learned from MIT's smaller Alcator C-Mod fusion device have enabled researchers, including MIT Ph.D candidate Brandon Sorbom and PSFC Director Dennis Whyte, to develop the conceptual ARC (affordable, robust, compact) reactor.

 

"We wanted to produce something that could produce power, but be as small as possible," Sorbom said.

 

A working ARC fusion reactor would use 50 megawatts (MW) of power to produce 500MW of fusion power, 200MW of which could be delivered to the grid. That's enough to provide 200,000 homes with electricity.

 

While three other fusion devices roughly the same size as the ARC have been built over the past 35 years, they didn't produce anywhere near its power. What sets MIT's reactor apart is its superconductor technology, which would enable it to create 50 times the power it actually draws. (MIT's PSFC last year published a paper on the prototype ARC reactor in the peer reviewed journal ScienceDirect.)

 

The ARC reactor's powerful magnets are modular, meaning they can be easily removed and the central vacuum vessel in which the fusion reaction occurs can be replaced quickly; besides allowing upgrades, a removable vessel means a single device could be used to test many vacuum vessel designs.

 

Fusion reactors work by super heating hydrogen gas in a vacuum, the fusing of hydrogen atoms form helium. Just as with splitting atoms in today's fission nuclear reactors, fusion releases energy. The challenge with fusion has been confining the plasma (electrically charged gas) while heating it with microwaves to temperatures hotter than the Sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read the rest: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3028113/sustainable-it/mit-takes-a-page-from-tony-stark-edges-closer-to-an-arc-fusion-reactor.html

[The Evil Overlord]

Does Tony Stark know about this? You know he'll sue,  

[FloatingFatMan]

11 hours ago, Thomas the Tank Engine said:

A working ARC fusion reactor would use 50 megawatts (MW) of power to produce 500MW of fusion power, 200MW of which could be delivered to the grid. That's enough to provide 200,000 homes with electricity.

So where does the other 250MW go?

[DocM]

Reactor power is expressed in two ways; MW (thermal) and MWe (electric output). The difference is waste heat, electric conversion lossesc etc.

 

[FloatingFatMan]

13 minutes ago, DocM said:

Reactor power is expressed in two ways; MW (thermal) and MWe (electric output). The difference is waste heat, electric conversion lossesc etc.

 

That's a hell of a lot of wastage...

 

[DocM]

Generation IV fission reactors are about 45% efficient. A simple direct conversion fusion reactor would be about 48%, but some types could go much higher.

Edited February 5, 2016 by DocM

[Beittil]

And getting them to be more efficient is just a matter of time i suppose. The first issue though is to just get them up and running properly first