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A comment on Nuclear fusion: WEST beats the world record for plasma duration. Parent comment

Re:Nuclear fusion: WEST beats the world record for plasma du... by cladopa on Tuesday February 18, 2025 @09:22PM (#43097830)
No. It just does not make sense from physical rules. Fusion only happens in a very high vacuum, at ridiculous temperatures, with very specific fuel, in the confined space. Just the cooling effect of having oxygen atoms there(in the plasma) stops the reaction, let alone touching anything so cold(millions of times colder and denser) as the walls or the outside gas.

Also stops immediately if no fuel is given.

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Re:Nuclear fusion: WEST beats the world record for plasma du... by thetoon on Wednesday February 19, 2025 @01:37AM (#43099258)
Naive question here : how do we expect to collect thermal energy from it if we can't allow it to cool even a little ?
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Re:Nuclear fusion: WEST beats the world record for plasma du... by kadoban on Wednesday February 19, 2025 @02:07AM (#43099430)
You can extract heat, in fact you'd have to extract it or let it leak out somewhere. The whole point of it is that it generates more energy than you put in, so energy has to come out somewhere for it to maintain stability.

Gp is just saying that if you cracked it open like an egg (or just had a minor leak even) all that would happen is it would stop fusing. The room this happened in would be a bad place to be, but it's just going to start a fire or something, not destroy the world.

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Re:Nuclear fusion: WEST beats the world record for plasma du... by XorNot on Wednesday February 19, 2025 @02:14AM (#43099467)
Neutron radiation doesn't get contained, and leaves the reactor easily carrying heat with it. That heat has to go somewhere, and so that's what we take energy from.
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