[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] One of the world's most complex machines

[Jeffrey P Freidberg]

Many fusion scientists believe that the stellarator might ultimately outperform the tokamak.  However, at present, the world’s best stellarator, the W7X at Max Planck, is still a generation behind the tokamak in terms of achieved performance.  One main reason is that at present, the cost of the complicated twisty magnets in a stellarator far exceeds that of a tokamak.  Thus the high fields necessary for high performance still have not yet been generated in a stellarator because of cost and complexity.  People, including many scientists, are losing patience waiting for fusion.  Consequently, the current focus of government spending, plus the recent influx of private funding, is aimed at tokamaks which hopefully will be “good enough” even if not “the best long range” configuration.  Also, the recent technological breakthrough development of high temperature rare earth superconductors leads to tokamak reactor designs that are much smaller and cheaper than ITER, the $20B+ experiment being built in France.

From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+jpfreid=mit.edu at lists.toku.us> On Behalf Of L Wittig
Sent: Friday, May 6, 2022 10:39 AM
To: Lexington Computer Group New Address Distribution <LCTG at lists.toku.us>
Subject: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] One of the world's most complex machines

This is the W7X stellarator at the Max Planck Institute for Plasmaphysics. It is a working machine that has achieved some useful results, but it will not exceed breakeven (that is more power out than in). Stellarators actually predated Tokamaks but now have fallen somewhat out of favor compared to Tokamaks and other designs.
Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyqt6u5_sHA
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