This Magnet Can Lift an Aircraft Carrier And Will Attempt Nuclear Fusion

[Javaman]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epnpjm/this-magnet-can-lift-an-aircraft-carrier-and-will-attempt-nuclear-fusion

One of the world’s most powerful magnets is the Central Solenoid of the megaproject ITER. It will be as tall as a six-story building, can lift an aircraft carrier, and is designed to play a central role in an upcoming experiment that might just provide humanity with the means to produce limitless energy without harming the planet.

The first module of the Central Solenoid is now embarking on a long journey from California to France this week, according to a joint announcement on Tuesday from ITER and General Atomics, a company that invested a decade into its design and fabrication. There, it will be integrated into ITER—an unprecedented machine named after the Latin word for “the way”—that aims to pioneer nuclear fusion, a long-sought form of carbon-free energy akin to a “Sun on Earth.”

The module will be loaded into a special 24-axle transport vehicle that will drive only at night due to its sheer size until it reaches the coast of Texas, where it will be placed on a ship due to arrive in Marseilles, France, in late August.

Weighing an extraordinary 250,000 pounds, the magnet is the first of seven modules (including one spare) that will make this transatlantic trip from General Atomics’ Magnet Technologies Center in Poway, California, to the emerging ITER complex in Cadarache, France over the next few years. Once there, they will be carefully stacked at the center of the fusion experiment’s torus design, which is known as a tokamak.

more at link....

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very interesting article. I had no idea this was going on.

[Chainfire]

1. That is very cool.

I am glad that they will be doing the fusion experiments in France, not next door to me.

[NNadir]

6. I've toured the fusion reactors at PPPL several times.

PPPL is a few miles from where I live.

I would be more concerned if I lived near a semiconductor plant, but that's only because I know a lot of science.

[2naSalit]

2. Yikes.

I wonder if, at some point, there will be a magnet that could disrupt the magnetosphere in a very dangerous way. Just wondering.

[awesomerwb1]

3. Dangerous

Louie Gohmert might ask to use that magnet to alter the moon's orbit.

[NCjack]

7. I hope that the nurse with magnetic masses in her body caused by C-19 Vax doesn't

get within 500 miles of the magnets.

[Layzeebeaver]

4. I'm surprised we didn't make it into a weapon first.

Cause that what the MIC does with nearly everything else

[NNadir]

5. Fusion energy was weaponized in the early 1950's. n/t.

[Layzeebeaver]

8. The giant magnet...

… which is the main subject of the article.

[NNadir]

9. Magnets were weaponized before fusion.

Radar would be one place. Radar was a military development.

[Layzeebeaver]

10. Was this particular magnet weaponised?

The particular magnet discussed in the article?

I suspect not.

[NNadir]

11. If you're really, really, really, really concerned, I'm sure you can find out.

You can even take a trip to France, if you find it important and interesting.

I don't.

High field magnets have been around for a long time, of course, and for sure, some have been weaponized. The ones with which I work are tied to something else.

[StevieM]

13. I suppose fusion power will have its day, at some point down the line.

Right now I am more interested in existing power sources.

Is this the type of reactor you most favor? With helium as a coolant, rather than molten salt? I am asking because I have heard you talk about high temperatures, as well as not being "a molten salt kind of guy."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_gas_reactor

[NNadir]

15. Helium is a moderator, and thus is useful only for thermal reactors, for which only one fuel...

Last edited Wed Jun 16, 2021, 04:26 PM - Edit history (1)

...can serve as a breeder, U-233, derived from thorium.

While thorium can serve for many generations to meet all human energy needs, even thorium mined as a side product of lanthanum mining and thus in the tailings, the uranium/plutonium/minor actinide system is in fact inexhaustible, owing to the presence, in an oxygenated atmosphere, of recoverable uranium in seawater.

I have nothing really, against the thorium cycle, but I'm a plutonium/neptunium/americium kind of guy. Although most liquid metal reactors are regrettably tied to sodium and sodium/potassium eutectics, I am a liquid metal kind guy in general, with the caveat that I think there are far better choices than sodium, especially in light of advances in materials science.

I oppose molten salt systems built around beryllium, and I am not entirely crazy (in the fast case) about FLINAK.

I am also fond of boiling metals and boiling salt coolants, and rather enamored of liquid fuels similar, but hardly identical to those utilized in the "crazy" LAMPRE experiments of the 1960's.

These types of fuels offer the potential for inline reprocessing either by extraction or boiling, with the benefit that we can recover valuable radioactive fission products for use.

As far as I know, none of these ideas are close to being mainstream, and for now, are "out there." I'm trying to download these ideas to my son the materials science engineer before I die, but he's kind of busy, mildly interested, but busy. I note that very few good ideas remain isolated to single persons. My whole life has been thinking up "new" and "good" ideas that have been widely considered by others previously.

[Layzeebeaver]

14. Had you read my original post...

…literally and without and potential preconceived interpretation this exchange would likely not have occurred.

Regardless, I think it’s kind of funny and slightly entertaining.

Typically, I find your posts to be informative, and I sincerely look forward to reading more of them.

[Javaman]

12. who says we haven't?

[Warpy]

16. China recently announced it had sustained fusion plasma reaction for 100 seconds

It's still sucking more energy than it can produce, as the article points out.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a36630528/china-artificial-sun-breaks-fusion-world-record/

[cstanleytech]

17. Would be nice if we could make the transition to something cleaner and safer than anything else we

currently have to produce large quantities of electrical power.
Of course it wont solve all our problems as pollution and overpopulation are two big problems we will have to still deal with but it would still be a huge step forward assuming of course it all works out.

[Warpy]

18. Research into molten salt reactor technology has been ongoing

in both China and India. So far, it seems a lot safer than uranium reactors, although we still don't know what to do with the garbage.

[cstanleytech]

19. To bad we can't simply eject it into the molten core of the planet as that would probably lock the

waste away for a good long time.

[Warpy]

20. That would be 30-50 miles down over land

The Russians managed 7.6 miles in northern Siberia. Not even a Siberian winter could keep their equipment cool, when they quit, the drill heads were simply getting too soft to work due to extreme heat.

It isn't a practical solution, not yet.

Still, it was a remarkable achievement for the Russians. The samples they obtained will keep geologists busy for a very long time.

[cstanleytech]

21. Yes, I am well aware of all of that.