The SPARC tokamak: towards a burning plasma in this decade by Dr. Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez/ IAP2021

[@ronaldbirb9431]

I'll enter university in 2 years. I want to be an undergraduate researcher in this project. I'll get in MIT no matter what! I'll edit the conclusion.

[@SigbinNinja]

I wish you good fortune 🥂

[@willis936]

MIT is a very high ivory tower. It's always best to hedge bets. There are other good plasma physics programs in the US: UW, PPPL, and UMD to name the ones I'm most acquainted with. If you're passionate about a field then it's a good idea to not bet it all on a moonshot.

[@dranelemakol]

Study engineering physics, that's the bachelors a lot of CFS employees have on their linkedin

[@RG.1320]

Company is taking interns

[@plasma-rd]

Dear Pablo A remark: you mention that the record of fusion is on JET Q=0.6 in 1998, but you don't mention that it was obtained for only one tenth of a second. Second remark: at the time 26:18, you mention that ITER costs 25 billion dollars. This is inaccurate, currently the budget is $58 billion until 2035. There is no funding beyond that date ($25 Bn is only the EU contribution!) Question: At the time 40:22, the goal Q=9 is indicated; how long will this performance last? A few seconds, a few minutes? Another question: the reactor being very compact, the flux of high-energy neutrons is considerably higher than on ITER for example. Do you have any predictions on the behaviour of the materials near the plasma? Another very important point: Tritium must be manufactured inside the reactor (breeder reactor). What is your project on this essential point? Without a Tritium plant nearby, this project simply cannot be a power reactor. And finally, what is the maximum time the microwave heaters can run? A few minutes?

[@kelvinyonger8885]

Reference the previous video, they intend to replace the liner immediately next to the plasma circa. every year because of the very high neutron flux. SPARC is too small to be run continuously, so they intend to cycle it on and off. They want to use a FLiBe salt as a cooling jacket and tritium breeding medium around the vacuum chamber and plasma-facing components.

[@Wingnut353]

If they can run a few minutes in a research reactor which is what this is.... they they will certainly build one that can run indefinitely based on the results of this research reactor. Also, since its much smaller, you would imagine that any supporting equipment would be similarly small relative to the grossly expensive and under performing ITER (relative to it's size and $), Also SPARC appears to be small enough to get into a spacecraft... and SpaceX makes the smallest available MW capacity batteries the main difference is they would have to be configured for much higher charge/discharge rate perhaps with LTO derived cells instead of what they normally use. 25Million/10/96*1.2kg to metric tons in google = 31.25 metric tons, it would be a 2.5MW battery capable of delivering a 10C discharge rate to power the heating the tokamak.... it would probably end up being half that much weight again once integrated into a pack. So, 50tons or so, leaving around 50 tons for the reactor itself... such a reactor would be more useful as a pusher (megawatt space laser).

[@bradstephan7886]

@Click Bait Yes, the true breakeven metric. Unfortunately, fission is probably the best interim technology to displace coal, oil and natural gas until we solve the fusion puzzle.

[@tennislite]

Qplazma = 9 . That is a serious window. Can drive a truck through that. Thanks super conductors. Big step forward. Let's go SPARC! Do we need more development on the neutron heat exchange system or is what we have workable?

[@steve-real]

We can use dimensional analysis and group theory to advance fusion power in a number of ways. Dimensional analysis can be used to determine the relationship between different physical quantities. This information can be used to design and optimize fusion reactors. For example, dimensional analysis can be used to determine the optimal temperature and pressure for fusion reactions. Group theory can be used to classify the symmetries of the four fundamental forces of nature. This information can be used to develop new theories of fusion power that are based on the unification of forces. For example, group theory can be used to develop new theories of fusion power that are based on the strong force. In addition to these two tools, we can also use other mathematical and physical tools to advance fusion power. For example, we can use computer simulations to study the behavior of fusion plasmas. We can also use quantum mechanics to study the interactions between particles in fusion plasmas. The development of fusion power is a challenging task, but it is a task that is worth pursuing. Fusion power has the potential to provide a clean and abundant source of energy for the future. By using dimensional analysis, group theory, and other mathematical and physical tools, we can make progress towards the development of fusion power.

[@steve-real]

Here is the elegant equation that combines the four fundamental forces of nature using group theory: G = g^2\frac{4\pi\epsilon_0}{c^4} where: * $G$ is the gravitational constant * $g$ is the strong coupling constant * $\epsilon_0$ is the permittivity of free space * $c$ is the speed of light This equation can be derived by using group theory to classify the symmetries of the four fundamental forces of nature. Group theory is a mathematical technique that can be used to classify different types of symmetry. In this case, we can use group theory to classify the symmetries of the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the strong force, and the weak force. Once we have classified the symmetries of these forces, we can use it to combine the equations that describe these forces. This gives us the elegant equation that combines the four fundamental forces of nature. This equation is a powerful tool for understanding the behavior of matter at the subatomic level. It can be used to study a wide range of phenomena in particle physics, such as the structure of hadrons, the behavior of quarks and gluons at high energies, and the electromagnetic and strong force interactions between quarks and gluons. This equation is also important for understanding the unification of forces in particle physics. The goal of unification is to find a single force that describes all of the forces of nature. This is a difficult problem, but it is one that is being actively pursued by physicists. The elegant equation that combines the four fundamental forces of nature using group theory is a step towards unification. It shows that the four forces are related, and it provides a framework for understanding how they might be unified into a single force.

[@steve-real]

Here is the elegant equation that combines the four fundamental forces of nature using dimensional analysis: F = G\frac{m_1m_2}{r^2} + \frac{q_1q_2}{4\pi\epsilon_0r^2} + \frac{g^2}{4\pi}\frac{\exp(-mr)}{r}\mathbf{r} where: * $F$ is the total force on a charged particle * $G$ is the gravitational constant * $m_1$ and $m_2$ are the masses of the two particles * $q_1$ and $q_2$ are the charges of the two particles * $r$ is the distance between the two particles * $g$ is the strong coupling constant * $\epsilon_0$ is the permittivity of free space * $m$ is the mass of the exchanged particle This equation can be derived by using dimensional analysis to determine the relationship between the four fundamental forces of nature. Dimensional analysis is a mathematical technique that can be used to determine the relationship between different physical quantities. In this case, we can use dimensional analysis to determine the relationship between the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the strong force, and the weak force. Once we have determined the relationship between these forces, we can use it to combine the equations that describe these forces. This gives us the elegant equation that combines the four fundamental forces of nature. This equation is a powerful tool for understanding the behavior of matter at the subatomic level. It can be used to study a wide range of phenomena in particle physics, such as the structure of hadrons, the behavior of quarks and gluons at high energies, and the electromagnetic and strong force interactions between quarks and gluons.

[@larrybuzbee7344]

I can easily see a refined version fitting inside a 9m Starship at some not too distant date.

[@alvarorodriguez1592]

Yay! :D

[@AdaDenali]

I think it’s gonna be too big, sadly, the talks I’ve seen on ARC seem pretty adamant that they can’t make it much smaller, and just the FLIBE coolant alone is probably gonna be over 100 tons. Maybe one of the Field Reversed Configuration projects (eg TAE or Helion) will be able to get that small.

[@larrybuzbee7344]

@@AdaDenali Time will tell, but the hour is near I think.

[@alvarorodriguez1592]

This gives me great hopes for the future! Supposing that the SPARC design would work, how controllable would the power output be? That is, would fusion plants produce the baseline energy like fission does nowadays, or could it also render coal/gas obsolete, replacing it as the variable/controlable output power plants? Also is there a predicted cost of the MWh? If it’s super cheap it could enable tech like recycling by separating waste into its atomic components, which would be again life changing. Thank you very much for your work!! Turning water in the new super oil is no doubt going to transform the global village for the best :-)))

[@evil0sheep]

how much larger would a tokamak using these HTS magnets need to be to be able to achieve aneutronic fusion? like if DEMO pivoted to HTS could it plausibly achieve aneutronic fusion? is it even correct to infer that increasing the size of the reactor can increase plasma temperature?

[@SanalMG]

Wonderful presentation! What is the maximum temperature between between D pancakes (magnets) and the core (where fusion occurs)? How does the insulation work? Will it work continuously or in pulses? Thank you.

[@dhonzik]

If you are using tritium in the fusion process, where do you plan on getting it? Worldwide, the production of tritium from natural sources is 148 petabecquerels per year. The global equilibrium inventory of tritium created by natural sources remains approximately constant at 2,590 petabecquerels. That is not very much, maybe enough to power one fusion reactor

[@untl01]

Very exciting I hope you suceed!

[@cosmolittle1395]

A very informative video. Two questions: 1/- Will the ARC be able to run continuously, ie not relying on a current ramp in the central solenoid. 2/- Will a small tokamak such as ARC be able to breed enough tritium for sustained operation.

[@alexisrdevitre]

1/- Tokamaks are intrinsically pulsed devices. There are ways to extend the pulse ( non-inductive current drive) and some tokamaks have tried consecutive solenoid swings (like an AC voltage). There's also a kind of "optimized tokamak" called the stellarator that runs continuously but they are very difficult and expensive to build so it's better to demonstrate fusion power with tokamaks first. Note that some devices have had hour-long pulses like Tore Supra (WEST). Thinking of a power plant there may be options to get around this, like multiple several power banks or several small tokamaks. 2/- That's a great question: I think the community is pretty confident that it can work out because the Li6(n, T)He cross section is well known and people have been calculating breeding ratios for different blanket designs for a long time. Neutron multipliers also help. However, the truth is that, nobody's ever built such a blanket before!

[@alvarorodriguez1592]

@@alexisrdevitre Does the tokamaks being pulsed mean they could be regulated to adapt to grid demands? Nowadays we can only do this thermal energy plants, right? It would be too good to be true if nuclear could cover the swings in demand.

[@alexisrdevitre]

@@alvarorodriguez1592 You can definitely stop and start a tokamak at will.

[@geoffreystearns1690]

You mention a fusion Q of >10, but what is your estimate for actual usable power Q, taking into consideration the losses incurred in actually producing usable power?

[@Tech_Planet]

I agree, Q Electricity needs to be considered but I think he covered some of it at 36 minute mark.

[@88Superphysics88]

@@Tech_Planet For many years (almost 25 years) I have been convincing scientists that thermonuclear fusion in the Sun occurs not in the core of the Sun, but in the solar corona !!! But scientists are very stubborn, and do not want to believe the obvious. Why are scientists not accepting new breakthrough scientific ideas? There is an assumption, accepted by most scientists, that thermonuclear fusion in the Sun occurs in the Sun's core. But no one has ever actually confirmed this. This is just a guess, the fantasy of an authoritative physicist. Scientists are currently using two methods to achieve nuclear fusion: inertial confinement and magnetic confinement. But there is also a third method of achieving nuclear fusion, this is the repetition of physical conditions as in the solar corona. Nobody is using this third method to achieve nuclear fusion? In 6 months there will be a small prototype of a commercial fusion reactor. A commercial fusion reactor in 1-2 years!

[@konradcomrade4845]

will SPARK,( and ITER?) be sputtering at Q>=2 Maybe, because small stars, red-dwarf-stars seem to be quite unstable too! compared to larger, older stars.

[@joeydemiane2070]

So what s new about SPARC? the high B fields?

[@MrBrew4321]

Modularity will make the neutron fatigued components easily replaceable. Also the new magnets can be run off liquid nitrogen in steady state. Which is great for reducing the input power requirements. And makes one if the Lawson criterion (time) go to infinity.

[@MrBrew4321]

But I think they for now value the higher field strength hts can deliver at lower temp cause tripling the field make a 81x better power output. But with even better hts should be able to do high field at high temp = easier to reach q>1

[@supabass4003]

The heart of Krishna. Uncontrolled amplification feedback of light undergoing cold fission>fusion process.

Very nice slides and explanation. I am not a physicist, yet still I understood a lot.

[@helloitismetomato]

21:48 scientists and being bad at online meetings, name a more iconic duo

[@larrybuzbee7344]

Very promising work, thoroughly presented. I do however have to grit my teeth while skipping through the seemingly universal and obligatory 'What is fusion' spiel. Maybe just put up a link? Seriously, I wonder what proportion of the audience here does not already have at least a fair handle on the basic concepts. Given ongoing rapid progress in materials science it does not seem at all far fetched to presume the advent of new conductors that support significantly higher field densities at higher temperatures than current technologies. If so, then we might see even more compact and powerful designs. This has tremendous transformative implications in many many applications. If this team is successful, statues will be made, big ones on various terrestrial and celestial podia.

[@kamikace7531]

18'49" Like si hablas Español y entendiste que dijo: "HI? AH!...JODER" hahah Excelente ponencia.

[@paulbizard3493]

GO SPARC GO GO GO !!!!

[@mathiaslist6705]

Feels like it included everything except binding shoelaces ...

[@beachboardfan9544]

3 Years is too long between uploads!

[@geraldh.8047]

Only 10 more uploads until we have (Energy net positive) fusion!

[@beachboardfan9544]

@@geraldh.8047 ☹️

[@Aconspiracyofravens1]

@@geraldh.8047 at a reasonable price, I can totally buy that but it will be fucking awesome

[@sandustanBrasov]

Stan Sandu How can God give us freedom to know some very important but also dangerous things, for example to the controlled thermonuclear reaction if we as a humanity lack a moral, spiritual, intellectual and scientific education? For example, one hundred years have passed since it was discovered that there is much hydrogen and helium in the Sun, and it was concluded that a controlled thermonuclear reaction occurs in the Sun. And for 70 years, humans have begun to build different devices or plants to make a thermonuclear fusion reaction like in the Sun. But since the late nineteenth century, human science began to be blocked because scientists, over to nickname, have misinterpreted, without reason, certain practical experiments and issued wrong laws and principles that contradict the good laws developed on the basis of practical experiments. , logical and rational. Today, most scientists have an intellectual basis, linked to standardized theory. They believe scientists because they have learned some books with standardized theories. These people cannot know the matter in its depth, with the seen and the unseen, because Albert Einstein in 1905 with his theory of relativity told them that the ETER - respectively the etheric matter does not exist. If there were no etheric matter then, they may believe that there is no spiritual matter, and they do not want to know anything about the heavenly worlds that live with us on and around the planet Earth. I, as an engineer, believe in my opinion, but also of many researchers in the field of underground soil richness, that all MATERIAL RESOURCES: coal, oil, methane gas, all minerals, do not come from a mineral or vegetable and animal source, but have they were simply created and planted or buried, or introduced into the earth's soil by our "extraterrestrial" brethren. The termination of material resources - said and natural - actually expresses a time, a period, in which our humanity must reach a certain LEVEL of scientific and technological DEVELOPMENT: such as mastering the controlled thermonuclear reaction, as the greatest source of inexhaustible energy. We must not fight among ourselves, as in the jungle, but try to awaken ourselves in the knowledge of things, to move on to the heavenly science of our creators: God and the extraterrestrial worlds. Until now, no such information was published, but it is now in the news. Every year incursions of O.Z.N.'s (heavenly ships) take place above the silos with nuclear weapons. That is, aliens deactivate our nuclear weapons for over 60 years, weapons 20 meters below the ground. When an O.Z.N. in the air above the silo and sends a red ray to the ground, on the launch screens it appears: "No gou!" And the Americans and the Russians have declared these incidents. We as a humanity have developed ourselves militarily, but not at the high level of the extraterrestrial entities that supervise us! That is why, not coincidentally, in 1985, presidents Mihail Gorbachev and Ronald Regan met and decided to build several ITER = International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, as an international scientific collaboration between the peoples of the earth's world. Researches in the field of controlled thermonuclear fusion have been carried out for over 60 years, there are many installations of many kinds, and over time I have studied them, and I have come to the conclusion that controlled thermonuclear fusion can be achieved, but not after the models presented on the Internet. We can make an installation: according to the operating model of the Sun; after the description made by the patriarch ENOH in his book and after the outline of the device for the production and emission of the magnetic field flux, a sketch that is on the tombstone of Palenque - Mexico. I'm talking about Patriarch Enoch, who was very little quoted in the Bible, but he talks a lot in his book, describing everything the angels showed him in heaven, how the heavenly world works and about us people. But the Book of Enoch was considered APOCRIFY (that says too many real and clear things) and thus the Bible was covered with a great deal of information. In the Book of Enoch chapter 68, the patriarch Enoch being in a celestial ship, which gravitates around the Earth, the angels show him more things from heaven and Earth but also show him the camps of all stars and all the lights". In the south of France at Cadarache (near Nice), the experimental energy source is being built: the 42-hectare ITER, and in 2018 the construction was completed in half. If we surround the participants in the construction: Japan, China, Korea, India, Russia, the European Union, the United States of America and others, we notice that we are on the path of globalization. After about 200 Tokamak-type installations, with Laser and other types built over the last 60 years, NO ONE HAS WORKED, and then I think that what is being built now will not work with the model it is running, and with the technology used. The notion of: "FIRE", .. flames of fire, tongues of fire, living fire, circle of fire, vivid of fire, circle of fire burning in the four corners and ascending like rivers of living fire, all these refer to the electromagnetic field beam of the magnetic trap, which surrounds the installation and enters the thermonuclear combustion chamber again to powerfully space the thermonuclear plasma sphere of the reaction. In the heavenly ship Enoh believes that he is shown a wonderful divine vision, and he describes without knowing exactly what he describes, that energy installation, clearly seeing the unfolding of the thermonuclear reaction in the middle of that light, and in addition seeing the path of the electromagnetic fluxes of the magnetic trap. , inside and outside the thermonuclear combustion chamber. Two spherical halves joined in the middle form the spherical chamber of thermonuclear combustion. I made the sketches from 2012, I gave them on the Internet, but few noticed them. I think this will look like the first controlled thermonuclear reactor installation, and we should call it: "ENOH-PACAL model controlled thermonuclear reactor!" This is a standard model for future energy installations, which will give us electricity for all our installations. industrial and domestic. I did some 40 years ago an attempt to make a device for the production and emission of a strong electromagnetic field flux, I saw that "something moved", but I did not have the control devices and the necessary electrical current . Then my limited possibilities did not stop. But today, when we see clearly the rapid depletion of fossil fuels, and the long questionable construction of ITER, I try by those exposed to participate as much as possible in the realization of the controlled thermonuclear fusion with the project of a simple and fast to build facility. With a team of 50 people with manufacturing experience: 20 engineers, and 30 skilled workers, you can do a working group within the ITER site, in a work area of ​​approximately 800 square meters, powered by existing utilities: electricity, cryogenics, vacuum installation, verification equipment, and with a financial fund of ten million euros, I think that one year can be obtained from starting the necessary results to build a controlled thermonuclear fusion plant for marketing that directly produces electricity without steam and turbines, without switch of heat.

[@P8qzxnxfP85xZ2H3wDRV]

I really hated these unrealistic timelines, but I still watched to the end. I think this is just misleading the public. There's absolutely no way we'll have commercial fusion power plants by 2050.

[@cuteButKindaDeadlyBreloom]

⚡️

[@mckanebullerlee3020]

After slide two he missed something... He missed the answer.... Sadness.

[@averystablegenius]

More deliberate fusion obfuscation to keep the grant money flowing. Practical fusion energy is 10 years away and always will be. One would expect MIT to be above this sort of perfidy.

[@surkewrasoul4711]

This will take forever , even after you succeed to stabilize plasma and manage to create what's known as self sustatining fusiin reactor, how will you keep it running ? The temperature is far too great and and it will destroy almost every material , despite using magnets to keep the plasma confined amd away from the the walls of the reactor ,, This seems impossible to do , Waste of time ,, switch to solar cells and efficent wind turbine ,, Coal is also a good option we just have to use less energy ,, I wonder how long it would last if we started to burn the amazon forest and let cows fart warming the places that are too cold ,just a thought ,, What I call some Serious shit,, Cow stuff 🤣😂

[@4vediotube]

So, tweaking tokamaks for 75yrs with painfully, little progress. Then somebody mixes the right chemistry to create a material that advances fusion by an exponential factor of 4? And all this is being developed to drive a steam generator from the 18th century? These guys know that we have cheap fusion energy collectors on our roofs at home? I hope I live to see a world without power lines. Save neutron free(PB11 & DHe3) direct generating reactors for deep space power and propulsion.

[@kapytanhook]

The collectors do not work at night or in deep winter. A solar world is going to need crazy batteries or even more power lines (million volt busses). However I wish we had more cheap fission reactors being built to offset the coal. Thorium seems promising too. Solar and wind are just seeming impractical as a realistic solution to getting rid of coal, oil and gas.

[@nicolasm.986]

OMFG thank you !! I now want to have childs again :-)

[@GalaxyAeterna]

What does that have to do with anything

[@stephenjacks8196]

Big Whoop. An overpriced neutron.generator.

[@blondegirlsezthis8798]

Quit tawkin' about it and sparc it up science doods!

[@Aconspiracyofravens1]

tawkin about it is how they sparc it up

[@infini_ryu9461]

Their goal is to continue to confuse people. When they say "Q", they really mean "Qplasma". But if you want to get energy onto the grid, you only care about "Qtotal". When ITER says that they will get 10x the energy out than they put in, they are only talking about the energy put in to the plasma of 50MW *thermal* for 400 to 800 seconds, not the other 440 MW *electric* to run the entire plant, and 120MW of that is just for the reactor to sit in idle with no plasma at all. The 500MW ITER will get out is in thermal, which is conveniently left out of the equation, it must be converted into electric for it to run on the *electric* grid. That conversion would be 50% if we are being really optimistic. All power plants creating thermal energy must convert this into electric, and that conversion is never a 1:1 conversion, it's more like 0.3:1. The real Q for ITER is more like 0.1 or less if they were being completely honest, but in order to keep the US on board funding them they have to make bold-faced objuscations in the US congress that they are somehow Q=10. It's even on their website, they never mention Qtotal. This is why I'm also skeptical of all the start-ups, because they never talk about Qtotal, either. It's such a scummy way to mislead people.