Tokamak Energy news

Point out news stories, on the net or in mainstream media, related to polywell fusion.

Moderators: tonybarry, MSimon

alexjrgreen
Posts: 815
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 4:03 pm
Location: UK

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by alexjrgreen »

Skipjack wrote:
paperburn1 wrote:20 tesla 10.5 centimetres MRI are supose to be a thing 130 metric tons sooo maybe
I have trouble understanding that sentence. Sorry. Can you rephrase it, please?
The world’s strongest MRI machines are pushing human imaging to new limits
Ars artis est celare artem.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Skipjack »

The magnets that TE is using are much smaller, because they use HTSCs. Those can hold a much higher current than low temperature super conductors. It seems that they are also more quench resistant.

crowberry
Posts: 672
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:34 am

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by crowberry »

Tokamak Energy raises £67m to make Oxford nuclear fusion hub
https://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk/tokamak ... usion-hub/

Carl White
Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:44 pm

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Carl White »

Here's a nice retrospective for Tokamak Energy.

"Ten years of Tokamak Energy: the rapid progress of a private fusion company"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWYnbYs ... e=youtu.be

crowberry
Posts: 672
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:34 am

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by crowberry »

Tokamak Energy has been awarded £10m government funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”), as part of the UK Government’s Advanced Modular Reactor project.

https://www.tokamakenergy.co.uk/tokamak ... -strategy/

https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/07/ ... lear-tech/

Carl White
Posts: 476
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:44 pm

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Carl White »

"Managing the extreme heat in a Tokamak device - Introducing the divertor"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPBwWicctmY

crowberry
Posts: 672
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 6:34 am

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by crowberry »

Here is a nice video summarizing the progress at Tokamak Energy in 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSNquPUriIw.

Giorgio
Posts: 3061
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:15 pm
Location: China, Italy

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Giorgio »

Nice video indeed.
It will be be darn interesting to see the results of the 20 Tesla magnet on that DEMO4 test machine. If it follows the theoretical prediction than ST-F1 machine might indeed be the first fusion reactor of humanity.
A society of dogmas is a dead society.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Skipjack »

I don't think that TE will be the first, but they will likely be one of the first. I think they have a good chance to beating MIT/CFS, though CFS has a lot more money. I see them definitely beating TAE and and probably General Fusion too.

Giorgio
Posts: 3061
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:15 pm
Location: China, Italy

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Giorgio »

My personal bet is that the first one that will solve "Divertor" and "First wall" engineering issues will be the winner.
A society of dogmas is a dead society.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Skipjack »

That's one of the reasons why I like Helion. They don't have those problems.
I think CFS has a pretty decent grasp on the divertor issue. At least judging from Dennis Whyte's divertor design class.

Giorgio
Posts: 3061
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:15 pm
Location: China, Italy

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Giorgio »

Indeed Helion does not have to bother with divertors, but the trade off is that they need to develop a proper direct conversion energy system that is probably on the same level of engineering difficulty. But I think that their main problem will be to develop the 3He generation process (from the D-D reaction) to start up the whole D-3He fusion, which is a huge head scratching issue that I am not sure how they plan to handle.
TAE does not have this issue as they plan the p-11B route, but we all know how much extremely more difficult to maintain this reaction is in respect to D-D or D-3He fusion route.
Unfortunately I didn't see any big advancements in the last few years from neither of them in these points.

White's "long leg" divertor design is indeed an improvement with its 10/12 MW/m2 load design, probably enough to handle the low power experimental reactors needs, but very far from the 60 to 100 MW/m2 needed for a commercial design. And while the difference seems small, the Neutron Flux and the power flux peaks during transient Edge Localized Modes periods in the proposed commercial reactors look scary in respect to our actual engineering abilities.
A society of dogmas is a dead society.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Skipjack »

The direct conversion system is intrinsic to Helion's reactor design. The charged particles induce a current in the magnets that drive and compress the plasmoids. Plus they can recoup quite a bit of the energy that went into driving the fusion reaction in the first place. This is why they believe that they will be able to get away with a relatively low Q compared to other reactor designs and still be economic.

Their reactor is probably best described as He3 boosted D+D fusion. From my understanding, the D+D reaction would by itself be net energy positive.
So they "just" have to separate the He3 from the T that is produced in the second branch between shots. The D+He3 then adds more "oomph" in subsequent shots to make the reactor more economic and cost competitive with gas and renewables (which also have a reliability problem).
I presume that they are running their reactor D- rich at all times. So that they will always produce additional He3 for subsequent shots in the D+D side reactions.
I actually believe that their biggest challenge will be Tritium handling. Theoretically, Tritium will decay into more He3 within 12 years on average, but the storage can be really difficult. It may be more economic to just sell the Tritium on the open market. Tritium is super expensive (currently anyway) at 30,000 USD/gram. They could sell it and then buy He3, which is a lot cheaper. So they would be able to get additional He3 and still make a profit.
Of course eventually the mechanisms of demand and supply will kick in and He3 will get more expensive while T will get cheaper, but that will take time, hopefully enough time for them to figure out what to do when that happens. Paradoxically it could be great for Helion if there were competitors that need Tritium for their reactors (assuming that Tritium breeding will remain difficult enough to have a continuous demand from those).

Giorgio
Posts: 3061
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 6:15 pm
Location: China, Italy

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Giorgio »

The direct conversion unit is still totally theoretical until now, so I would not dismiss it as a "solved issue", and this includes also the re-circulation of the injected power.
Selling Tritium could indeed be a good source of income for pushing the financing of additional research funds.
A society of dogmas is a dead society.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: Tokamak Energy news

Post by Skipjack »

From what I understand, they do have experimental data and "power in the bank" from their direct conversion method, though the efficiency is currently a well kept secret.

Post Reply