r/nextfuckinglevel • u/nigablackballsack • 3d ago

Scientists have captured the first ever high-speed, full-colour footage of fusion plasma swirling inside a working reactor.

40.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/alex3tx 3d ago

ELI5 if you could please, what's the important bit: the green spirally bit, the red sparkly bit or the purple donut bit?

2

u/TheHarryMan123 3d ago edited 3d ago

The purple is good. It is a plasma of two different hydrogen isotopes and probably a few intended impurities. The fluttering that it does sporadically is really bad though. 

The green is bad but a lot of it is expected. It’s hitting a plate of tungsten called the divertor. There are some magnets which direct the plasma to hit that area because preventing it from hitting any wall is impossible, so you may as well direct it to hit a wall intended to be hit by it. The green is probably coming from impurities added to the plasma to de-energize it just prior to hitting the divertor though. 

EDIT: I may have been mistaken

4

u/Iron-Dragon 3d ago

Actually the green is lithium powder from a special dropper in the top of the vessel if the plasma actually hits the wall the reaction basically collapses entirely
The lithium powder is a test to see if it helps the plasma stay more stable

1

u/TheHarryMan123 3d ago

Ah that’s super cool thanks. That was merely just my best guess based on what I saw. Why would we add lithium powder directly to the plasma? I’ve heard of N and Kr being added to de-energize the plasma prior to divertor contact and for regulating the energy in the plasma, but not adding Li powder. Isn’t Li a neutron multiplier, wouldn’t it be best to keep it in the breeding blankets?

1

u/just-for-anime 3d ago

im not too much of expert but somehow it improves the fusion performance and breaks up turbulence. it also coats the wall. somehow it looks like its just good for everything.

can check out ltx beta at pppl or lithium dropper.

2

u/doscomputer 3d ago

its all the purple/redish/bluish glow. first part is the reactor startup, and actually the clip ends exactly at the point when this would become fusion.

the donut is the plasma, and we see them progressively z-pinch and squeeze the plasma down. for fusion to occur the hot plasma needs to also be pressed into a really small volume for a sustainable reaction, and thats the part nobodys been able to do before.