New record for fusion

World's First Continously Operating Superconducting High-Beta Fusion Research Device - Horne Technologies


Why not call it, "Longest title filled with buzzwords, ever!"

The plasma is the purple, glowing stuff. The four posts hold the magnets. When they are activated (they were only running on liquid nitrogen so their field strength was pretty low), They "push" the plasma downwards. You can see the cusp... it looks like a disk with pointy things sticking up out of the middle... like a top. It is lowered then as electricity is eased back off the magnets it rises back up until it just shoots through.

The next step is to hook up their superconducting magnets to a liquid helium system to create a real high-beta area.

Steven Cowley, newly named director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) effective July 1, has received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth “for services to science and the development of nuclear fusion.”

Now known formally as Sir Steven Cowley, he previously was chief executive of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Research, and most recently was president and professor of physics at Corpus Christi College at Oxford University.

“Princeton is truly delighted that Steve is coming to lead the Lab,” said Dave McComas, Princeton University Vice President for PPPL. “His contributions earlier in his career in the U.S. and then more recently in Europe have been stellar and we are counting on him to lead PPPL to new heights.”

newswise.com (PR), June 12, 2018 - New PPPL director Steve Cowley is honored with knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

How is that for a going away present?!

It may seem kind of perfunctory but I really hope this bodes well for PPPL and that they right the ship. If you have been following along, each research facility is not a singular entity but shares data, research, researchers, equipment, etc. across the board. That is how nuclear fusion will be finally figured out.

Congratulations, Sir Steven Cowley!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Often the problem is that there is a limited strength of magnetic fields allowable with the high temp superconductors, and higher the superconductivity fails.

a reply to: mbkennel

That makes me wonder what Lockheed is shielding their magnets with since the magnets are sitting in the plasma. Can't have you plasma heat and superconducting magnets fighting each other but they sure seem like all is fine with their scheme.

The high temp SC magnets also have graining issues. They get clusters of crystals that are not evenly distributed which is one reason they coil the wires together just to ensure there is a pathway through when chilled. Sprinkling that nano particle SC, even if it is YBCO and not REBCO, would help that situation. Even if you have to cool it down to YBCO temps the other will be just as happy working there too!

Still waiting for the day when someone announces either a magnet break through or that their reactor reached break even point!

Here is another reactor that was all low key. The two main strategies have been magnetic confinement (and the issues mbkennel pointed out); and, laser heating (aka, inertial confinement fusion). The "deep fusion" being worked on stands out as being different for not following either scheme (it is like a giant spark plug where they are zapping their fuel source to ridiculous temperatures. They are aiming for the aneutronic reaction so they are nearly on their own using this method). And General Fusion is using a crazy scheme of having their fuel in a vortices of liquid lead and slamming them together using some injection scheme. But mainly it is magnetic confinement and inertial confinement. Then some 20-something whiz kid comes along and decides to do both schemes!!

AGNI Energy borrows elements from each of these fusion methods for use in their device. AGNI focuses a beam of ions, which is half of the fuel, onto a solid target which is the other half of the fuel.

To focus and control the beam in a way that is scalable, this reactor uses both electric fields and magnetic fields. Unlike the typical magnetic confinement, these ions have a very short flight time before they hit the target, so the ions don’t need to be controlled very long before the fusion occurs.

Rather than just squeezing the plasma, which is like grabbing smoke with your hands, they just fire it straight at the target, using some interesting quirks of physics to boost its energy on the way there. With this approach, AGNI may overcome the hurdles and eventually reach breakeven fusion.

Hopkins and Thomas’ design was originally based on an inertial design of nozzle fusion, but altered to replace the negative electrode with a solid state fuel target. Magnetic ring confinement increases particle energy and density at the target. This process was originally tested with heavy-water ice in a small inertial design, and ran for about 10 minutes.

The AGNI reactor uses several types of fusion fuel in order to take advantage of different energies and the fusion-ion heating of aneutronic fusion, in which neutrons carry only about 1% of the total released energy, as opposed to 80% in traditional fusion reactions. Successful aneutronic fusion would greatly reduce problems associated with high neutron radiation such as ionizing damage, neutron activation and requirements for biological shielding and safety. The amount of waste is also greatly reduced even for fusion.

In this reactor, the ion beam contains a mixture of deuterium and helium-3, deuterium being the dominant component of the beam. The target plate contains Lithium-6, Tritium, and Boron-11. Because of pre-target fusion, there are more final products interacting with the target plate then Deuterium and Helium-3. Of note, Deuterium—Helium-3 fusion produces protons that can then fuse with the Boron-11 to produce three Helium-4 ions (see figure).

Forbes.com, June 18, 2018 - AGNI Energy Claims Nuclear Fusion Isn't As Far Away As You Think.

A new reactor! And they are engineering the aneutronic Boron-11 reaction to boot! That means higher temperatures over the deuterium-tritium (DT) reactions. It sounds like they are using the particle beam to produce a wave in the electrostatic portion further increasing the ions interaction at plasma heat. Li-6 breeds more tritium for more reactions with deuterium. The reaction does not produce fast neutrons like other D-T reactors which then can fuse with Boron making helium as the "waste" product while making an electric current!

That is dang cool! It means more engineering up front to deal with higher temperatures but the pay off would worth the effort. It has Bill Gates enthused with their work (half of the Forbes article is an overview of energy companies in the Pacific Northwest. Except there is no mention of UET which is strange because it would only make sense to store electricity until demand requires it and UET makes vanadium flow batteries in the PNW. I'll give them props here!). And a convert now in me too!

It included images of the compact fusion reactor, an effort Lockheed acknowledged five years ago to develop a breakthrough nuclear powerplant. But Lockheed officials have said ongoing tests on a series of subscale prototype reactors won’t produce data needed for a go-ahead decision until later this year or next year.

FlightGlobal.com, June 15, 2018 - ANALYSIS: Does Skunk Works hiring binge indicate secret new programme?.

I'll take any CFR news I can! So they are still working on T-4 and T-5 models it sounds like. The T5 is the high temp, high pressure plasma one and a review of their magnetic confinement scheme. Seems like it would be a good check point on progress. It is just nice to have a general time line for ANY announcement from Lockheed.

The rest of the article is a good read too! Seems Skunk Works has had an up tick in on boarding personnel. The article says orientation was every other week but now they are running bi-weekly meetings! Leads to the questioning nature of the article. I wonder what they are working on!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

The hiring binge is related to a C-5 upgrade program starting this month and running until 2023. The two (former) C-5Cs that they converted for NASA undergo maintenance at Palmdale. One is due in later this month and will be done sometime in October. They might bring others to them as well to be done in the required time frame.

a reply to: Zaphod58


Knew I should have asked you!

C5, huh? The Galaxy is still pretty cool. Not exactly a compact fusion reactor but it looks like I'll have to wait before any news gets released on the fusion project.

The other news they mentioned in passing is Rob Weiss retiring. I just figured out who he was and he up and leaves. It was either him or another exec who mentioned in passing the CFR funding was continuing (last year). Now I have to look out for the other guy, Bablone, in the press releases.

Thanks for the info!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

They haven't said what exactly they're doing beyond "hardware and software upgrades" but taking 5 months is also going to include a mini PDM, probably of the landing gear, the cargo doors, wings, and tails.

a reply to: Zaphod58


Software always gets overlooked when it shouldn't. Especially with Lockheed.

Reading their fusion reactor patents there is a lot there in the control systems that explain how they see the reactor being used. They are having the CFR networked together (or at least have the ability to be networked) sending back info on wear and total hours operable, etc. That way they can keep track of when maintenance has to happen. I see that as a major value added to a reactor's cost. If you have been paying attention you know that they are also working on swarms of drones. I don't think they would stop with just drones or planes.

A bunch of nuclear fusion reactors all networked together, turning off or on as needed, a quasi-distributed grid (with their own version of grid-level storage, of course!). I see the future! It is so bright, I gotta wear...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

From what I've heard through the grapevine, a certain event has to take place first, before we see large scale rollout to the civilian sector, but there are indications that it's either happened, or is happening, which fits nicely with their "next year" time line.

a reply to: Zaphod58


For all the things Ast0 posted about he was very coy about Lockheed's fusion reactor.

My guess, it has been operational for a while. At least 2014 if not earlier. I mean, that was the year of the announcement and you just don't make that kind of announcement without a fair chance at success. The photo released of Dr. McGuire was not one of, "I think we can do this," but was one of disbelief, like, "OMG! I can't believe this is coming out!"

I am sure they want to make it sexy (if you can a fusion reactor that!) and then they need operational partners (which is why I peak at hiring news in the first place!). Then there is legal and national regulation (you can't just go out and turn on a power plant nowadays! lol). I know, rationally, it will be a while.

But after literally having to sit down and drink a beer when I heard that news, I am impatiently awaiting the future!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I'm not going to go much into what those requirements were or appear to be, but I've laughed my ass off at a few articles. Especially the one that talked about them being almost there on the reactor that fits into a pickup truck bed, while they were all standing around the larger reactor, that everyone was totally ignoring.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The "fits on the back of a pickup truck" one has been there since day one! Even Lockheed's own site shows a semi with what looks like a lowboy hauling the main reactor around (cartoon). I am not
sure where "pickup truck" came in but it is still repeated. That and people always say "cold fusion" which it is not either.

I still think two big things are needed: energy storage and energy transmission. Losing 6 - 10% (I've seen 15% quoted, but will go low) just pushing electricity "down the wire" seems like a good place to start. Everybody can enjoy the benefits of fusion especially if it is in a distributed network. Energy storage also seems like a good place to invest time and energy. You take all this brain power and technical expertise over multiple years and struggle to meet demand? Come up short under heavy usage? Nah, it is just the smart thing to do: store it until needed.

Those two items are currently being worked on. Heard Buckyballs do a wonder on regular, high tension wires (although can't find the source anymore). Redox flow batteries are being trialed in several locations. Both would work well with any fusion reactor when one comes on line.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Lockheed actually said it IIRC. The miniaturized reactor was one of their major goals for awhile. They talked about it here. It sounds like they used it as an example in this case and people ran with it. But I've heard quiet talk of some extremely interesting uses for one that small though.

en.wikipedia.org...


tinyurl.com...

Hrm..I kinda like the second one..

While just googling around I found a job posting for the NSTX-U. Apparently, last year they advertised for a project manager for what they call, "NSTX-U Recovery Project." That is the recovery plan that was drafted due to the magnet and cooling issue resulting in the fusion reactor to be shut down.

It is a multi year plan. They are also going to do an upgrade to two magnets and re-fit of all vacuum seals from single to double if not fully enclosing any openings.

Last weekly update is dated Jan. 5, 2018, simply stating, "NSTX-U in a maintenance and repair outage".

The repair plan has PPPL making their own superconducting magnets. They held a Preliminary Design Review and are taking a field trip to England to see a demo of the process prior to Manufacturing beginning.

nstx.PPPL.gov Weekly Reports (index, by date).

They also hired a project manager for the Recovery Project. I did not see any time frame just project stages. I am probably now on some list when I clicked a link from PPPL to a username/pswd page! lol.

Wendelstein 7-X achieves world record

“First experience with the new wall elements are highly positive”, states Professor Dr. Thomas Sunn Pedersen. While by the end of the first campaign pulse lengths of six seconds were being attained, plasmas lasting up to 26 seconds are now being produced. A heating energy of up to 75 megajoules could be fed into the plasma, this being 18 times as much as in the first operation phase without divertor. The heating power could also be increased, this being a prerequisite to high plasma density.

... At an ion temperature of about 40 million degrees and a density of 0.8 x 10^20 particles per cubic metre Wendelstein 7-X has attained a fusion product affording a good 6 x 10^26 degrees x second per cubic metre, the world’s stellarator record.

IPP.MPG.de, Press Release, June 25, 2018 Wendelstein 7-X achieves world record.

W7-X had the carbon tiles installed, had the divertor installed (passive cooled), and larger heat gun (6 MW, iirc), and several other items. The main thing was the carbon tiles as that allowed them to increase the heating capability. They also got a new pellet feeder.

All things moving along allowed them to run a plasma for 26 seconds!! And at heat and density, too. I think they stated they wanted a 20 second plasma for this round (it is actually a half round as they are in summer break. Second half will start back up at the end of July). Gives researchers time to do those write ups which was also announced: they published Round 1 data in Nature. That data shows that their bootstrap current is minimal and under control. Btw, plasma density for W7-X is 3.0 x 10^20 particles per cubic meter (total volume of plasma is 30 m^3), so they have some ways to go.

The 50 SC magnets are within 1/100,000 th of design specs. The passive tiles are handling the heat. They are hitting their targets. This thing is working!

a reply to: SaturnFX

Nope. LoL

The same thing was suggested with the first atomic bomb tests.

If a fusion rector were to go south the same explosion would be pretty much the same as a fusion nuclear warhead going off.

But if anything begins to go wrong with the reaction they can shut down the process a lot easier than with our conventional nuclear reactors.

Summit is the new jewel in the crown for US supercomputing, succeeding the Titan supercomputer that was the most powerful machine in the world five years ago, with 27 peak petaflops and currently ranked seventh in the world. But Summit is targeting 200 peak petaflops of performance at 13 megawatts of power for traditional HPC simulations and more than 3 exaflops for machine learning codes, which should make it the fastest and smartest supercomputer in the world. It’s the US answer to China’s Sunway TaihuLight.

Summit is being built by IBM, Nvidia, and Mellanox Technologies for the DoE’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF). Just like Titan, Summit is a hybrid CPU-GPU system, with 4,608 nodes with two IBM Power9 processors and six Nvidia Volta V100 GPU accelerators per node – you can see the performance benchmarks in the chart below. The supercomputer will have a large coherent memory of over 512 GB DDR4 and 96 GB HBM per node, all directly addressable from the CPUs and GPUs, and an additional 1600 GB of NVRAM, which can be configured as either burst buffer or as extended memory.

nextplatform.com - Cracking Nuclear Fusion with Supercomputers and Smart Code.

Good loard! 200 petaflops!! 3 exaflops of machine learning. I wonder if it is protected against Spectre/Meltdown!!

I mean, because everybody needs 1600 GB of NVRAM. Right? They are using OpenACC over CUDA so other computers can run their code. That is rather nice of them. And they just ported over their base code (OS) which was originally written in FORTRAN95!! Oh my! Having run jobs and reports on a real time OS running FORTRAN based OS, I have first hand knowledge of how fast the code is (Upon reboot, 190,000 data points would be queried in seconds, times 20, from 800 miles away. And that was years ago with something like a Pentium).

They are going to model hydrogen atoms of the plasma obtaining both spatial and time-locked data while the plasma whips around a tokamak. It will provide fine grained data over a longer period of time which current modeling lacks.

As plasma temperature increases, and pressure increases, we inch closer and closer towards ignition. This kind of computer modeling become important. Why did the picture of Homer J Simpson, kicked back with his feet on the control console go through my head? I am starting to think reactors will be computer controlled for the most part.

And at the very least we will need nuclear fusion to power these supercomputers!