Re:Helion Energy achieves fusion milestone
by choeger on Thursday July 22, 2021 @06:40AM
(#27917368)
Well, of course they do. If 20th century SciFi literature has taught me anything then that there is nothing in high-energy physics that cannot be explained by a metaphor to some good old combustion device or, in exceptional cases, a hydraulic system.
Touched on here: https://www.euro-fusion.org/news/alternative-fusion-concepts...
The diagram from Helion on that page makes it look basically like a two-stroke petrol engine: a magnetic field compresses the plasma, which then fuses, and the energy pushes back against the field, doing work. I'm not sure my intuitions about lawnmower engines really carry over to fusion reactors like that, though.