UK startup's nuclear fusion gun to fire 1B-G projectile at fusion fuel pellet

Re:UK startup's nuclear fusion gun to fire 1B-G projectile a... by Someone on Thursday November 10, 2022 @08:00AM (#33545793)

FTA: Comparing tokamak reactors to inertial fusion, Hawker added that "magnetic fusion is like a furnace. It's an always-on hot process because the particles are going around the donut. Whereas inertial fusion is more like an internal combustion engine. It's a pulsed process where you have a repetition rate and the energy per event multiplied by the frequency gives you the power."

Let’s give them that they will be able to get more energy out of a single shot than they put in.

Even then, how many shots do they plan to do per second, and how long will their setup last? The barrel of a hand fire-arm lasts for a few thousand shots or, expressed differently, a few seconds of use (https://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/facts-abo...). Do larger guns fare better?

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Re:UK startup's nuclear fusion gun to fire 1B-G projectile a... by John23832 on Thursday November 10, 2022 @10:21AM (#33547747)

This is actually a good comparison. I guess that intuitively means that tokamak's will have a higher lifespan to even out their cost.

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Re:UK startup's nuclear fusion gun to fire 1B-G projectile a... by jbms on Thursday November 10, 2022 @11:58AM (#33549480)

They plan one shot every thirty seconds. But the gun is for research, the plant concept is an electromagnetic accelerator of some kind.

https://firstlightfusion.com/technology/power-plant

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