MIT Breaks a World Record For Nuclear Fusion

[Idaho_Cowboy]

MIT Breaks a World Record For Nuclear Fusion
The record was broken on the day the reactor was scheduled to be shut down.
By Avery Thompson
Oct 18, 2016

Scientists working at MIT's Alcator C-Mod experimental fusion reactor have broken the world record for fusion pressure. This achievement came on the day the reactor was scheduled to be shut down....
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a23431/mit-world-record-nuclear-fusion/

[LateForLunch]

MIT Breaks a World Record For Nuclear Fusion
The record was broken on the day the reactor was scheduled to be shut down.
By Avery Thompson
Oct 18, 2016

Scientists working at MIT's Alcator C-Mod experimental fusion reactor have broken the world record for fusion pressure. This achievement came on the day the reactor was scheduled to be shut down....
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a23431/mit-world-record-nuclear-fusion/

Only in a non-technical publication would a temperature difference of 15 million degrees be defined as "close".

It's possible of course that 35 million degrees is close to 50 million degrees in some sense, but not to a layman like me. 

I do know enough science to realize that the difference between 50 million and 35 million degrees is roughly the difference between a temperature that will convert solid matter to atoms in 0.0000001 second as opposed to 0.0000002 seconds.

Incidentally, we know that it's not a technical publication because it didn't even specify whether the quoted temperature was Fahrenheit or Celsius scale.

I've been following fusion research for years and all kidding aside, this may be a significant accomplishment or it may not. I'll have to read more in the journals.

I know that recently the cross-over point for a fusion reaction generating as much energy as it took to create it was approached, but that was not for a sustained reaction, only for the trigger-phase involving synchronized lasers fired at a pellet target and I think the time of the pulse was in femtoseconds (quadrillionth's of a second).

Nuclear fusion is a delicate, elegant reaction. The nice thing about it is that if the plasma-containment field ever breaks down catastrophically, there is no danger of meltdown as in fission reactors. It would be more like the popping of a balloon - at worst there might be some minor danger in the immediate area around the machinery containing the reaction but little or no hard radiation and likely no danger of massive damage outside the structure in which the reactor was housed.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

I was surprised it didn't give more detail. Popular Mechanics is usually better than that.

I do know enough science to realize that the difference between 50 million and 35 million degrees is roughly the difference between a temperature that will convert solid matter to atoms in 0.0000001 second as opposed to 0.0000002 seconds.

As a layman, I know that's more that hot enough to cook a pizza in a hurry. 

[LateForLunch]

I was surprised it didn't give more detail. Popular Mechanics is usually better than that.

As a layman, I know that's more that hot enough to cook a pizza in a hurry. 

I hear ya'.  Turns out that to get a functional fusion reaction for hydrogen or helium fuels they need to get into billions of degrees F. The reason the temperatures are lower in solar fusion is that the pressures are enormously greater at the core of the sun, where most of the fusion occurs.

[Ghost Bear]

This is a great achievement! This makes it virtually certain that in another 10-20 years, we'll be able to run the entire country on fusion power!

DISCLAIMER: Any sarcasm detected is purely intentional.

[Joe Wooten]

This is a great achievement! This makes it virtually certain that in another 10-20 years, we'll be able to run the entire country on fusion power!

DISCLAIMER: Any sarcasm detected is purely intentional.

Fusion power has been 20 years away for the last 40 years.........

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Fusion power has been 20 years away for the last 40 years.........

Just like flying cars....
We do now have household appliances that connect to internet so you can't say man hasn't made any progress. 

[dfwgator]

This is a great achievement! This makes it virtually certain that in another 10-20 years, we'll be able to run the entire country on fusion power!

DISCLAIMER: Any sarcasm detected is purely intentional.

[Ghost Bear]

Fusion power has been 20 years away for the last 40 years.........

I know... that's why I included the "Disclaimer" on my post.

[Ghost Bear]

Am I the only one who ever watched that scene and thought, "Fusion doesn't work that way..." ?

[LateForLunch]

Fusion power has been 20 years away for the last 40 years.........

That's true. Scientists have routinely trotted out overly-optimistic predictions of success over that entire time in order to desperately try to keep the money-river flowing in their direction. In one sense, you can't blame them because politicians routinely use sound-bites from current events as justification for passing funding bills. So from a PR POV, the scientists know that they are lying, the politicians who quote them know that they are lying but the people who elect the politicians generally don't - and many don't care since they consider lying to be SOP for politicians.

The same thing has taken place with HIV/AIDS vaccine research. To people who are actually paying attention it is an obscene joke how transparently mendacious scientists are. Luckily for the scientists and politicos, most people aren't paying close attention.

Unlike HIV/AIDS vaccine research however, there actually does seem to be some progress toward the goal of a commercially-viable reactor being made (albeit slowly). From what I have read, they now can get reactors hot enough to use the cooler-fuels at smaller scales. The bigger, hotter reactors ( which can use hydrogen or helium fuel) have ostensibly already been funded and one or two are in the building phase. (Wikipedia)

Whether the new reactors can be made cost effectively so that they deliver power at competitive prices over time is another issue that will only be known after reactors which actually put out more energy than go into them are built and operated for a long enough period of time to make those financial assessments.

[Oceander]

Am I the only one who ever watched that scene and thought, "Fusion doesn't work that way..." ?

Not the only one!  Antimatter, perhaps.

[Smokin Joe]

I was surprised it didn't give more detail. Popular Mechanics is usually better than that.

As a layman, I know that's more that hot enough to cook a pizza in a hurry. 

Dunno. You get it too hot, and one side is burned before the other is done...

[LateForLunch]

Dunno. You get it too hot, and one side is burned before the other is done...

That's true. A super hot grill can work for meat but not for pizza.

'Knew of some scientists who got together every once in awhile and had a competition for who could light the charcoal grill the fastest. They used a variety of techniques, different fuels, different methods - one year, the winner figured out a way to inject liquid oxygen and lit the coals in three seconds. He was declared the winner because the rules said nothing about being disqualified for turning the grill into a lump of molten metal. 

[LateForLunch]

Am I the only one who ever watched that scene and thought, "Fusion doesn't work that way..." ?

hah hah I got into a contentious discussion with some ignoramus on a comments section of an article about the "dangers" of depleted uranium in M1 tank armor. The ignorant fool was terrified that there would be some sort of nuclear chain reaction started using it on the battlefield!! I tried to explain how nuclear fission / fusion worked but he was too ignorant to even understand how ignorant he was and fell back to vituperation and accusations that I was lying to him.

For many (perhaps most), understanding science is well-nigh impossible because they do not take the time or effort to learn the prerequisite information to grasp it. The only scientific field such ignorami (sic) can ever become experts in is Opinionology - which is the practice of using one highly-biased, fact-devoid, subjective opinion to validate another (such as for most people who say that they believe in Anthropogenic Global Warming). They believe something not because they understand it, but because someone else (an actor or other leftist) says that they do.

Stalin: Nobody is starving in St. Petersberg.
Aid: But your excellency, many people have seen that people are starving there and will not believe that what we say is true!
Stalin: The People will believe it - not because it is true, but because we SAY that it is true!! 
   

[Idaho_Cowboy]

hah hah I got into a contentious discussion with some ignoramus on a comments section of an article about the "dangers" of depleted uranium in M1 tank armor. The ignorant fool was terrified that there would be some sort of nuclear chain reaction started using it on the battlefield!! I tried to explain how nuclear fission / fusion worked but he was too ignorant to even understand how ignorant he was and fell back to vituperation and accusations that I was lying to him.

Woweee, I'll bet that was interesting.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

That's true. A super hot grill can work for meat but not for pizza.

'Knew of some scientists who got together every once in awhile and had a competition for who could light the charcoal grill the fastest. They used a variety of techniques, different fuels, different methods - one year, the winner figured out a way to inject liquid oxygen and lit the coals in three seconds. He was declared the winner because the rules said nothing about being disqualified for turning the grill into a lump of molten metal.

Brings a new definition to the term "rocket stove."

[LateForLunch]

Woweee, I'll bet that was interesting.

I doubt it was to him (he seemed to resent being asked to think for himself being largely another expert in Opinionology) and to me it was interesting only in the sense of being a case study of an irrational, extroverted, "feeling" personality type. Inevitably he would begin each response talking about facts but swiftly ending up talking only about feelings and intuitive assumptions which had little or no connection to anything even remotely resembling rational, factual discourse or information.

[Smokin Joe]

Brings a new definition to the term "rocket stove."

I had a rocket stove....


It burned up on reentry.

[kevindavis007]

I hope I'm alive to see Fusion powered rockets....

[Taxcontrol]

Held high temp plasma at 2+ atmospheres.  The higher the pressure, the lower the temperature required to achieve fusion.  Right now they are at about 70% of the temp/pressure requirement for commercial power.