A new path to solving a longstanding fusion challenge

[Elderberry]

MIT News by David L. Chandler October 9, 2018

Novel design could help shed excess heat in next-generation fusion power plants.



A class exercise at MIT, aided by industry researchers, has led to an innovative solution to one of the longstanding challenges facing the development of practical fusion power plants: how to get rid of excess heat that would cause structural damage to the plant.

The new solution was made possible by an innovative approach to compact fusion reactors, using high-temperature superconducting magnets. This method formed the basis for a massive new research program launched this year at MIT and the creation of an independent startup company to develop the concept. The new design, unlike that of typical fusion plants, would make it possible to open the device’s internal chamber and replace critical comonents; this capability is essential for the newly proposed heat-draining mechanism.

The new approach is detailed in a paper in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design, authored by Adam Kuang, a graduate student from that class, along with 14 other MIT students, engineers from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and Professor Dennis Whyte, director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, who taught the class.

In essence, Whyte explains, the shedding of heat from inside a fusion plant can be compared to the exhaust system in a car. In the new design, the “exhaust pipe” is much longer and wider than is possible in any of today’s fusion designs, making it much more effective at shedding the unwanted heat. But the engineering needed to make that possible required a great deal of complex analysis and the evaluation of many dozens of possible design alternatives.

Taming fusion plasma

Fusion harnesses the reaction that powers the sun itself, holding the promise of eventually producing clean, abundant electricity using a fuel derived from seawater — deuterium, a heavy form of hydrogen, and lithium — so the fuel supply is essentially limitless. But decades of research toward such power-producing plants have still not led to a device that produces as much power as it consumes, much less one that actually produces a net energy output.

More: http://news.mit.edu/2018/solving-excess-heat-fusion-power-plants-1009

[Joe Wooten]

If it is a viable fusion reactor, excess heat is not a problem, in fact you want it for power production to make either steam or high temperature gas to run a turbine.

[Elderberry]

If it is a viable fusion reactor, excess heat is not a problem, in fact you want it for power production to make either steam or high temperature gas to run a turbine.

I agree. This is a terribly written article. The author apparently doesn't understand the purpose of fusion reactors at all.

For example; " In the new design, the “exhaust pipe” is much longer and wider than is possible in any of today’s fusion designs, making it much more effective at shedding the unwanted heat."

Unwanted heat! The purpose of the reactor is to create heat. It appears that the writer totally misses that the extracted heat will be ultimately utilized to power turbines.

[Joe Wooten]

I agree. This is a terribly written article. The author apparently doesn't understand the purpose of fusion reactors at all.

For example; " In the new design, the “exhaust pipe” is much longer and wider than is possible in any of today’s fusion designs, making it much more effective at shedding the unwanted heat."

Unwanted heat! The purpose of the reactor is to create heat. It appears that the writer totally misses that the extracted heat will be ultimately utilized to power turbines.

That is a problem with most of these so called "science" writers. They are usually j school grads totally ignorant of any science.