How Close Are We to the Holy Grail of Room-Temperature Superconductors?

Re:How Close Are We to the Holy Grail of Room-Temperature Su... by dsq on Sunday April 16, 2023 @03:35PM (#35593514)

That's interesting. I didn't know that whether fusion power would be available depends on room temperature superconductors. Is there a simple explanation for that?

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Re:How Close Are We to the Holy Grail of Room-Temperature Su... by delta_p_delta_x on Monday April 17, 2023 @12:50AM (#35596949)

The most common and promising fusion experiments today (JET, ITER, Wendelstein-7X, CFS/MIT SPARC) are magnetic confinement fusion: use big, powerful magnets to shape and compress a hot deuterium-tritium plasma until fusion happens. In the Sun, gravity does the job, but at an extremely low power density; on Earth, we need to use magnets. These electromagnets draw a lot of current.

The big problem in fusion is containing and shaping the plasma without any instabilities. If we had room-temperature superconductors, the smallest current through a superconducting magnet would generate a very large magnetic field, enough to shape any plasma.

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Re:How Close Are We to the Holy Grail of Room-Temperature Su... by sergiomattei on Monday April 17, 2023 @05:46AM (#35598607)

That’s awesome. Not OP, but thanks for the TIL.

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