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243 points greesil | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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brohee ◴[] No.44636410[source]
Does it kill the idea of a tokamak as an energy production device? As in a stellarator proving the much more promising design...
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runxel ◴[] No.44637481[source]
Both ideas are pretty old (50s) and in development for a long time. Both designs have their pros and cons. The biggest drawback of the Tokamak however is that it can only be pulsed... which is kind of dumb to actually generate and provide energy in the long run. You really want the Stellarator here, since there it is at least theoretically possible to run "for ever" (not entirely true, but long enough cycles to be used in a power plant).

There are 2 podcast episodes with the guys who run Wendelstein here: http://www.alternativlos.org/51/ (it's German tho)

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1. vjvjvjvjghv ◴[] No.44642054[source]
These podcasts are really good. I remember the part where they had problems with some screws and the simple solution was to coat them with diamond.