So, how long was this reaction? “Brief moment” is not very detailed. At the Wendelstein 7-X reactor, they can keep up a fusion reaction for around 8 minutes without anything overheating.
Beyond just trying to maintain a reaction, we’ll need a design that allows for the extraction of working energy. At present, all designs require tons of additional energy to keep them cool. We’re very far from any design that is power positive in a real sense. Any time you ask one of the fusion fanboys about this there’s a lot of hand waving, but I’ve never seen any actual proposals to extract working heat from the reactor. Any designs that require supercooling are especially problematic. It’s really difficult to extract heat capable of turning a turbine through the supercooled magnetic containment.
Fusion will happen, but not before a whole lot more money and time (in decades) disappears into the money pit.
I’m not sure if the time scale would be measurable. Nanoseconds at most. But the relevant part is that it’s ignition.
A device to harness inertial confinement fusion would work very very differently to a magnetic confinement one if that were the goal here (it’s not, it’s a weapons research facility). Essentially heating something up a lot in milliseconds and then extracting the heat over hours to months.
So, how long was this reaction? “Brief moment” is not very detailed. At the Wendelstein 7-X reactor, they can keep up a fusion reaction for around 8 minutes without anything overheating.
https://www.ipp.mpg.de/5322229/01_23?c=5322195
Beyond just trying to maintain a reaction, we’ll need a design that allows for the extraction of working energy. At present, all designs require tons of additional energy to keep them cool. We’re very far from any design that is power positive in a real sense. Any time you ask one of the fusion fanboys about this there’s a lot of hand waving, but I’ve never seen any actual proposals to extract working heat from the reactor. Any designs that require supercooling are especially problematic. It’s really difficult to extract heat capable of turning a turbine through the supercooled magnetic containment.
Fusion will happen, but not before a whole lot more money and time (in decades) disappears into the money pit.
I’m not sure if the time scale would be measurable. Nanoseconds at most. But the relevant part is that it’s ignition.
A device to harness inertial confinement fusion would work very very differently to a magnetic confinement one if that were the goal here (it’s not, it’s a weapons research facility). Essentially heating something up a lot in milliseconds and then extracting the heat over hours to months.