Timeline for Does a fusion reactor have a cool-down period or can it operate continuously
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
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| May 10, 2020 at 1:42 | comment | added | David Ricci | Thanks for the help. | |
| May 10, 2020 at 1:29 | comment | added | Maxim Umansky | It is certainly feasible from the physics point of view. However there are issues in technology, engineering, and economics of it. There is no question whether you can make it work, in principle; but there is a question whether it will be practical, i.e., competitive with other energy sources. | |
| May 10, 2020 at 1:25 | comment | added | David Ricci | The setting aside, the feasibility and logistics of a reactor itself, capable of making hundreds of megawatts continuously for year is sound within the law of physics and engineering? | |
| May 10, 2020 at 1:14 | comment | added | Maxim Umansky | Sure, if we are discussing here energy source for a deep space colony, a fusion reactor producing hundreds of megawatts of power and operating continuously for a year should be viewed as the most realistic and practical part of the overall scheme. | |
| May 10, 2020 at 1:11 | comment | added | David Ricci | Just a fusion reactor in general, not specifically ITER, sorry for the confusion. And I was imagining it's setting is in a deep space colony, so you can see why I would obsess about how long it spends making power vs being offline. Why are the operating times so drastically different between the two designs, a few minutes v.s. half a million? Is it really even possible to build one that can output hundreds of megawatts for a whole year without interruption? Thank you. | |
| May 10, 2020 at 1:02 | comment | added | Maxim Umansky | Are we talking about ITER now, or about a design of a fusion reactor? We can easily find out the details for ITER, their operating plan is open to the public. For a reactor, as I said, a typical design would imply continuous operation for about a year. Fuel would be added and waste products removed continuously, during reactor operation. After operating for ~1 year, the shutdown time (opening the reactor chamber) would probably take days or weeks. | |
| May 10, 2020 at 0:55 | history | edited | Maxim Umansky | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 10, 2020 at 0:54 | comment | added | David Ricci | I suppose the question should then be how long would a typical confined plasma design usually operate for, a guessing not longer than a few minutes. between it's operating periods what is the machine doing? adding fuel and removing waste products, or re-initiating it's start up conditions? How long would the down time be between operating cycles, a few seconds, or minutes? | |
| May 10, 2020 at 0:50 | history | edited | Maxim Umansky | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 10, 2020 at 0:40 | comment | added | Maxim Umansky | Yes, actively cooled components have to be a part of a fusion reactor, again, for most designs but not for all. For ITER, see for example this article iter.org/mach/Blanket. When I say "continuous operation for most designs" I mean that there are various ideas for fusion energy, and some confined plasma configurations cannot be maintained continuously but only for a limited time period; still those have been considered for fusion energy. | |
| May 10, 2020 at 0:31 | comment | added | David Ricci | Thank you for the information. So they do not overheat during their operation because the walls of the reactor are made of heat resistant materials and are being actively cooled? And when you say "most existing designs" which ones in specific do you mean? | |
| May 10, 2020 at 0:24 | history | edited | Maxim Umansky | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 10, 2020 at 0:17 | history | answered | Maxim Umansky | CC BY-SA 4.0 |