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  • #735
    Brian H
    Participant

    The Levitating Dipole eXperiment with video. Also see http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/ldx-tt0319.html

    The LDX magnet has coils made of superconducting niobium-tin alloy, which loses all electrical resistance when cooled below about 15 degrees Kelvin; in the device, it is cooled to 4 degrees Kelvin–4 degrees above absolute zero, or minus 269 degrees Celsius, a temperature that can only be achieved by surrounding the coils with liquid helium. This is the only superconducting magnet currently used in any U.S. fusion reactor.

    When in full operation, the frigid magnet, contained in a double-walled vessel that is essentially a large thermos bottle, is surrounded by plasma heated to millions of degrees Celsius. Garnier says that in full operation, the system is quite literally a snowball in hell.

    Besides providing data that might someday lead to a practical fusion reactor, the experimental device could provide important lessons about how planetary magnetic fields work, which is still poorly understood. So the experiment is of great interest to planetary physicists as well as to energy researchers.

    It is notable that they are also going for “pinch”, using turbulence. It’s not clear to me if this is intended somehow to be a steady-state pinch, which sounds kinda impossible.

    #5813
    Aeronaut
    Participant

    It’s funded by DOE, and intending to run just deuterium, so my guess is they’re also aiming at steady-state fusion. Btw, doesn’t the D-D cycle also release its energy as HE neutrons?

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