posted on Oct, 3 2016 @ 05:35 PM
Finally, some technical news!
Issues in NSTX-U is associated with a failure after 10 weeks of work of one of the 14 magnets. Replacement coil [...] installation
will take a year. During this time NSTX-U will stall. The cause of the trouble with magnets is unofficially considered too rigid copper winding of
the coil.
Source: z-new.xyz, Oct. 3, 2016 -
In the US there have been problems
with nuclear fusion.
The magnetic coils use REBCO (Rare Earth Barium, Copper Oxide) superconducting tape. This is a flat, layered, sandwiched copper magnet/insulator that
becomes superconductive at a higher temperature than a tin-alloy superconductor (what they use at LHC, W7-X, and ITER). When the electric current
passes through the tape (now in a wrapped coil) it creates a magnetic field. The issue with nuclear fusion is that to get higher magnetic fields the
magnets themselves became larger. That is why the French ITER project is so massive. NTSX-U (the U stands for 'upgrade') had its magnetic coils
replaced which would make the magnetic field stronger (all the articles says is, "twice as strong" but fail to mention that when magnetic coil
strength increases the amount of "confinement power" increases to the fourth power due to the maths involved. So double the magnetic field strength
meant that this reactor would have been more powerful than all before it when it comes to magnetically confining plasma).
Unless they mean that by wrapping the REBCO tape too tightly around the coil element caused their problem then I do not know what they mean. Did it
crack? Did it fail when they pre-cooled it down? Was there a power test being conducted? Again, no real news but at least has some details!