The bizarre reactor that might save nuclear fusion

[Perspicuo]

Science.com: The bizarre reactor that might save nuclear fusion
http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2015/10/feature-bizarre-reactor-might-save-nuclear-fusion

If you’ve heard of fusion energy, you’ve probably heard of tokamaks. These doughnut-shaped devices are meant to cage ionized gases called plasmas in magnetic fields while heating them to the outlandish temperatures needed for hydrogen nuclei to fuse. Tokamaks are the workhorses of fusion—solid, symmetrical, and relatively straightforward to engineer—but progress with them has been plodding.

Now, tokamaks’ rebellious cousin is stepping out of the shadows. In a gleaming research lab in Germany’s northeastern corner, researchers are preparing to switch on a fusion device called a stellarator, the largest ever built. The €1 billion machine, known as Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), appears now as a 16-meter-wide ring of gleaming metal bristling with devices of all shapes and sizes, innumerable cables trailing off to unknown destinations, and technicians tinkering with it here and there. [...] Inside are 50 6-tonne magnet coils, strangely twisted as if trampled by an angry giant.

Not only twisted but immensely odd. It looks incredibly sci-fi.

It's apparently an improvement upon the previous technology, the Russian "токамак":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak

 

[none]

nice

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Call me when barbos is doing back flips.

 

[repoman]

This looks interesting as well:

http://spie.org/x114732.xml

 

[bigfield]

Shame it relies on helium as a coolant.

 

[Perspicuo]

This looks interesting as well:

http://spie.org/x114732.xml

They all look wayyy incipient but at least it all means "They're working on it"!