Joined: Mar 04, 2005 Posts: 2584 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 8:58 pm Post subject: MIT tests unique approach to fusion power
MIT tests unique approach to fusion power
Quote:
An MIT and Columbia University team has successfully tested a novel reactor that could chart a new path toward nuclear fusion, which could become a safe, reliable and nearly limitless source of energy.
Begun in 1998, the Levitated Dipole Experiment, or LDX, uses a unique configuration where its main magnet is suspended, or levitated, by another magnet above. The system began testing in 2004 in a "supported mode" of operation, where the magnet was held in place by a support structure, which causes significant losses to the plasma--a hot, electrically charged gas where the fusion takes place.
LDX achieved fully levitated operation for the first time last November. A second test run was performed on March 21-22 of this year, in which it had an improved measurement capability and included experiments that clarified and illuminated the earlier results. These experiments demonstrate a substantial improvement in plasma confinement--significant progress toward the goal of producing a fusion reaction-- and a journal article on the results is planned.
physorg _________________ Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:05 pm Post subject: Re: MIT tests unique approach to fusion power
Everyone's played with magnetic levitators. So did anyone ever take pictures of the MIT levitated magnet?
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