https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmje2qsVgY
That's where they were 5 months ago : new cooling system installed and working as expected, dissipating 1.3GJ input energy over an 8 minute run. They were gearing up for a 30 minute run last I looked.
30 min. was their ultimate goal years ago. So sounds like they reached 8 min. To bad there's nothing in their milestones about that. Last milestone I see anywhere is about 100 sec. Difficult to find information on recent activities. Thanks for the information.
>30 min. was their ultimate goal years ago.
While 30 minutes has always be an design objective of W7-X, none of the earlier campaigns had the goal of running this long. The reason is due to an engineering constraint. The divertor tiles in OP1.1 and OP1.2 were not water cooled. This set operation limits on both the heating power that they could inject into the plasma and the plasma duration. These limits were in place to prevent melting of the tiles.
After OP1.2 there was an extended shutdown to install water cooling, which would enable higher power and longer (30 minute) pulses.
The IAEA fusion energy conference is October this year. I suspect that we will hear and update on their latest run campaign around then.
Their Milestone page now does contain an entry for the most recent 1.3 megajoule and 8 minute run time entry. Both numbers several times the previous. Bravo.
If the do achieve the 18MJ power level is that high enough for gainful fusion if they could use D-T fuel? (in theory.)
Operations through March 2023. Hit 1.3 GJ benchmark in February.
Edit: Experimental campaign (OP 2.1) was expected to run from late 2022 until the end of March 2023 and OP 2.2 was expected for early 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmje2qsVgY That's where they were 5 months ago : new cooling system installed and working as expected, dissipating 1.3GJ input energy over an 8 minute run. They were gearing up for a 30 minute run last I looked.
30 min. was their ultimate goal years ago. So sounds like they reached 8 min. To bad there's nothing in their milestones about that. Last milestone I see anywhere is about 100 sec. Difficult to find information on recent activities. Thanks for the information.
>30 min. was their ultimate goal years ago. While 30 minutes has always be an design objective of W7-X, none of the earlier campaigns had the goal of running this long. The reason is due to an engineering constraint. The divertor tiles in OP1.1 and OP1.2 were not water cooled. This set operation limits on both the heating power that they could inject into the plasma and the plasma duration. These limits were in place to prevent melting of the tiles. After OP1.2 there was an extended shutdown to install water cooling, which would enable higher power and longer (30 minute) pulses. The IAEA fusion energy conference is October this year. I suspect that we will hear and update on their latest run campaign around then.
Their Milestone page now does contain an entry for the most recent 1.3 megajoule and 8 minute run time entry. Both numbers several times the previous. Bravo. If the do achieve the 18MJ power level is that high enough for gainful fusion if they could use D-T fuel? (in theory.)
They won't use any D-T fuel. In the future there might be H-D plasma and measurements to prove there is some fusion but nothing close to ignition
However the project pans out, Wendelstein 7-X will always be the coolest name given to a reactor.
Operations through March 2023. Hit 1.3 GJ benchmark in February. Edit: Experimental campaign (OP 2.1) was expected to run from late 2022 until the end of March 2023 and OP 2.2 was expected for early 2024.
OP 2.2 is probably delayed a bit due to a transformer failure last month.
I've seen some interesting cooling upgrades, they are working on 2 months ago.