this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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167
Actually it's pretty cool (lemmynsfw.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

It's a newly proposed fusion reactor prototype. It's a stellerator type reactor. Together with the Tokamak type reactors these two are the currently most promising types to achieve fusion and generate more energy than they take to operate. While the tokamakak type is looks more symmetrical to the human eye the stellerator type have adopted a very weird looking shape where the symmetries are more hidden. The pictures are from this paper by mostly people from the institute who to date created the biggest stellerator type fusion generator Wendelstein 7-x. The proposed prototype 'Stelaris' is a lot bigger than the 7-x.

Bonus (with little context):

And heres a shematic view oft how it would look like from outside. Just like a donut.

top 18 comments
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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 55 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If you need me, I'll be in my homogenized breeding blanket.

[–] Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Some days you just need neutrons to smash you hard enough to produce tritium.

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 7 points 2 weeks ago

Make sure you wear protection of you don't plan to have tritiums too young

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I'm sure it's somebody's fetish.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't forget to say no homo.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 9 points 2 weeks ago

If you need me, I'll be in my ~~homo~~genized breeding blanket.

[–] don@lemm.ee 16 points 2 weeks ago

I mean, we’re dealing with motherfucking fusion here. I’m surprised they aren’t talking about physical reactor parts that exist only in the 42nd dimension while orbiting a half a light year from Sag A*.

[–] BalderSion@real.lemmy.fan 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The largest stellerator currently operating in the US is. HSX at UW-Madison. The copper magnet coils had to be explosively formed. The coils were delivered one at a time. At one point one was stolen off the loading dock. This caused a lot of panic, as the budget was spent. There was no way to replace the stolen coil.

Something like a day later the sheriff called the university asking the if they were missing a hunk of copper. The thieves took the coil to a scrap yard for scrap value. The yard figured there was no way this bonkers shaped thing wasn't made to a particular purpose so they played along long enough to call the cops to find the rightful owner.

It's worth recognizing stellerators since HSX have all been periodic, that is every coil isn't unique. The designs used to be even more insane.

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Damn amateur methhead copper thieves. Don't they know the first rule of something like that is to break into into unrecognizable pieces or melt it down prior to taking it to the scrap yard?!#

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago

While I find the fact that the pics are being hosted on lemmynsfw.com hilarious, they are having the unfortunate effect of being blocked by the office firewall 😅

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Before I read the text I thought this was going to be about cellular biology

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ions don't move along field lines they want to spiral around them that's why. The shape of the magnetic containment field is actually quite simple: Take a donut, squish it a bit, cut it open, twist one end a couple of times and glue it up again. Five times in this case, seems to be a popular choice. It's the coils generating that field where the geometry gets Lovecraftian.

This is the Proxima Fusion stuff, they're planning on running the first surplus energy reactor early 30s and commercialise in that decade, the whole thing is designed for mass production with economics (build cost vs. maintenance vs. electricity price etc) in mind from the get-go. And yes they'll pull it off it's a spinoff of the Max Planck institute, not some garage tinkerers or VC fund techbros.

[–] Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Interesting. Their proposed stelaris reactor only has four twists in it though if I interpret the Plasma's shape as shown in their paper correctly.

It could be due to the generators much larger size but that's just a hobbyist's guesswork. Here a comparison of the height of one coil to other reactors and a human:

I'm not sure yet how much they are exaggerating with their capabilities and the reactors feasibility since I'm not a physicists and my only trust towards them stems from them working with the Max plank institute. But I hope it's solid work. I'm looking forward to the reactions from other physicists to the plan though.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah I'm blind that's four. Having fewer twists means more coils have the same shape so it's going to be cheaper to build but of course that's just one dimension of a massive, massive, design space. That's practically all they've been working on since Wendelstein turned on and exceeded everyone's expectations by behaving exactly as predicted. Wouldn't make sense to build a thing that gets Q > 1 but can't compete with at least fossil fuels, in fact that'd be rather embarrassing.

[–] Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh that's a good explanation for four twists. It sounds pretty likely that this was factored into the design.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago

On second thought, assuming equal spacing and same size of torus, less twists actually gives less repeated coils than more twists. An uneven number sounds bad for repeatability, though, and six might either be too much (ions don't want to twirl that fast) or the coils get too complicated to still be amenable to proper mass production or something.

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

I thought stellarators were older than tokamaks.

[–] flango@lemmy.eco.br 1 points 1 week ago

Very interesting