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Jim Witte
Jim Witte
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Reality questions: (I have no idea whether these questions even make sense)

With a tokamak-style reactor, how much damage would be done to the "supporting structure" if the plasma somehow got loose? I'm not thinking of a "boom" here (probably not), but just the damage and rebuilding cost.. I wonder if that's figured into the "fusion-as-ultimate-green-energy" scenarios?

Yeah, it's great if you can sustainably contain the plasma, but what happens if it gets loose? Would it basically just melt whatever the outer shell of the ring is (assuming there's something outside that ring that can manage to deal with that much energy), or would it basically melt down the entire building, meaning you'd have to start over building a.. 2+ billion dollar reactor, and maybe be able to salvage some of the superconducting material from the magnets?

I suppose with an ICF design could you have a large amount of space between the lasers and the target? I'm assuming in a tokamak that would be hard or impossible, unless you could get an incredibly high field strength.

Reality questions (I have no idea whether these questions even make sense)

With a tokamak-style reactor, how much damage would be done to the "supporting structure" if the plasma somehow got loose? I'm not thinking of a "boom" here (probably not), but just the damage and rebuilding cost.. I wonder if that's figured into the "fusion-as-ultimate-green-energy" scenarios?

Yeah, it's great if you can sustainably contain the plasma, but what happens if it gets loose? Would it basically just melt whatever the outer shell of the ring is (assuming there's something outside that ring that can manage to deal with that much energy), or would it basically melt down the entire building, meaning you'd have to start over building a.. 2+ billion dollar reactor, and maybe be able to salvage some of the superconducting material from the magnets?

I suppose with an ICF design could you have a large amount of space between the lasers and the target? I'm assuming in a tokamak that would be hard or impossible, unless you could get an incredibly high field strength.

Reality questions: (I have no idea whether these questions even make sense)

With a tokamak-style reactor, how much damage would be done to the "supporting structure" if the plasma somehow got loose? I'm not thinking of a "boom" here (probably not), but just the damage and rebuilding cost.. I wonder if that's figured into the "fusion-as-ultimate-green-energy" scenarios?

Yeah, it's great if you can sustainably contain the plasma, but what happens if it gets loose? Would it basically just melt whatever the outer shell of the ring is (assuming there's something outside that ring that can manage to deal with that much energy), or would it basically melt down the entire building, meaning you'd have to start over building a.. 2+ billion dollar reactor, and maybe be able to salvage some of the superconducting material from the magnets?

I suppose with an ICF design could you have a large amount of space between the lasers and the target? I'm assuming in a tokamak that would be hard or impossible, unless you could get an incredibly high field strength.

Source Link
Jim Witte
Jim Witte
  • 1
  • 1

Reality questions (I have no idea whether these questions even make sense)

With a tokamak-style reactor, how much damage would be done to the "supporting structure" if the plasma somehow got loose? I'm not thinking of a "boom" here (probably not), but just the damage and rebuilding cost.. I wonder if that's figured into the "fusion-as-ultimate-green-energy" scenarios?

Yeah, it's great if you can sustainably contain the plasma, but what happens if it gets loose? Would it basically just melt whatever the outer shell of the ring is (assuming there's something outside that ring that can manage to deal with that much energy), or would it basically melt down the entire building, meaning you'd have to start over building a.. 2+ billion dollar reactor, and maybe be able to salvage some of the superconducting material from the magnets?

I suppose with an ICF design could you have a large amount of space between the lasers and the target? I'm assuming in a tokamak that would be hard or impossible, unless you could get an incredibly high field strength.