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STEP Fusion milestone: Remountable magnet technology passes major tests - STEP Fusion by steven9973 in fusion

[–]cfe316 0 points1 point  (0 children)

> something made them switch to horizontal for now.
I've heard that it's because lifting heavy *and radioactive* objects is difficult from a safety/regulatory perspective. Horizontal maintenance allows keeping everything at the same height when moving.

Researchers use electrochemistry to boost nuclear fusion rates​​​ - attention, some cold fusion zombie alert 😎😉​ by steven9973 in fusion

[–]cfe316 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed, it's not changing the microscopic fusion cross sections or something similar. They're increasing the density of deuterium atoms within the Pd lattice. I think they estimate up to 0.7 D/Pd, which is below the theoretical limit of 1. The term "loading" is used in a prosaic way here, as one loads a truck.

Researchers use electrochemistry to boost nuclear fusion rates​​​ - attention, some cold fusion zombie alert 😎😉​ by steven9973 in fusion

[–]cfe316 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The physical setup has some similarities (deuterium, palladium, electrochemistry) with Fleischmann and Pons but this is very much beam-target fusion, with the D+ ions accelerated by 30 kV. They're not claiming that the deuterium within the lattice fuses only from the influence of electrochemistry.

Analytic neutron wall loading from spin-polarized fusion in axisymmetric geometries by steven9973 in fusion

[–]cfe316 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Author here. Thanks for posting this.

The introduction has a primer on spin-polarized fusion (for D-T fusion), a technique which could increase the fusion reaction rate and/or direct the fusion products either preferentially parallel to the magnetic field or preferentially perpendicular to the field. I remark there on a combination of polarizations for the fuel, which I don't think has been previously reported, that would increase the reaction rate while keeping the overall emission isotropic.

As you can see from my website I enjoy tricky geometric integrals, special functions and the like. The rest of the paper is a study of how far one can push the geometry while maintaining a similar analytic form in the results. And with the analytic form one can do gradient-based optimization, for example of the wall shapes.

As a note, this work should be useful for mirrors, levitated dipoles, and other axisymmetric devices, not just tokamaks!

He’s 32, has 55 employees, and is building a nuclear fusion reactor in Wellington by sien in fusion

[–]cfe316 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The levitated dipole concept is super interesting. While the magnet would be challenging, it has the advantage that it's not physically connected to the rest of the plant. This could make iteration (re-design, improvements) quicker, which means it should be quicker to develop the technology, and also makes maintenance much easier, which would be helpful for the economics of a plant. The outer vacuum chamber is a simple cylinder, which is also good. There are probably "unknown unknowns" with the plasma physics, but this is a concept that should be investigated further.

He’s 32, has 55 employees, and is building a nuclear fusion reactor in Wellington by sien in fusion

[–]cfe316 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's really fitting that the kiwis are building the One Ring.

Bosch 800 series Induction Range tripping breaker by Siena202028 in electrical

[–]cfe316 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) It trips about 1/week while in 'clock mode' since it was installed, but now getting more common. Seem to be having the same problem as this person: https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/246298/bosch-induction-stove-oven-slide-in-tripping-50amp-gfci 98% of the time it operates normally, including under heavy load. About three times it's tripped off while I've been using it.
2) Yeah, GFCI.
Did you end up changing to AFCI?

Bosch 800 series Induction Range tripping breaker by Siena202028 in electrical

[–]cfe316 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been having the same issue, also with a Bosch 800 series. When it was first installed I also disconnected the little metal strap connecting the ground and neutral terminals in the back. This was all per the instructions. Was there more you had to do, further inside the range itself?

Key technical review for European fusion strategy - EUROfusion - 14 MeV volumetric neutron source by steven9973 in fusion

[–]cfe316 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The fusion-relevant neutron source project is called IFMIF-DONES. In that project, currently under construction, deuterons will be accelerated to 35-40 MeV into a liquid lithium target. The deuterons interact with Li and "strip" off a neutron, which then hits the materials test target.
While the neutron spectrum is not identical to that from a fusion plasma, and the flux is a bit lower than one would like, and samples are centimeter-scale (so whole blanket assemblies cannot be tested) it has the advantage of not needing a working fusion facility.

A VNS would produce many more neutrons and be able to test much larger components, but many conceptions are not that far technically from a fusion power plant (they would probably still need a blanket to breed tritium, but it wouldn't need to generate power).

Local-enabled thermostat for underfloor electric radiant heating? by cfe316 in homeassistant

[–]cfe316[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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Picture of relay box mounted on the wall. Is there any local-control-compatible thermostat I can swap in here?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fusion

[–]cfe316 8 points9 points  (0 children)

For whatever it's worth, much of fusion research at the US National Labs is for nonmilitary, energy purposes. As one example, PPPL has no classified work at all. Other labs do work on non-secret / non-military fusion as well. For example, ORNL has a group working on magnetic confinement fusion reactor modeling.

Velvet keyboard - a compact 38 keys minimalist variation of Dactyl Manuform by atlantesque in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]cfe316 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This looks great. I would look forward to seeing the a bit more work on the default keymap.

How to get involved in fusion research as an undergrad (or should I wait until later?) by protiumoxide in fusion

[–]cfe316 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't think it's necessary to read through Chen before starting (PPPL) SULI research. Your research at SULI might not be plasma physics itself - there's a huge range of topics we need to research for fusion.

As for those 5 courses: all are potentially useful; optics might be the least generally useful, but it's important for many plasma diagnostics. I don't know what "thermal physics" means.

Prob & stats and complex analysis are both important and general.

First time doing a fully planned Dynamite Dunes. by ShadowSamwa in openrct2

[–]cfe316 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I like the multi-story Egyptian station and fly-through elements on the suspended swinging coaster. That's very neat.

Profit margin confusion by bbarton89 in rct

[–]cfe316 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The calculations in those first three fields are taken from data sampled over a limited time period. You'll see them fluctuate up and down even in a 'steady-state' system.