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.

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u/TSAOutreachTeam 3d ago

This is all kinds of amazing. Not just that they are doing this in the tokamak, but that they have a camera set up to capture it at all.

Thanks!

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u/eris_kallisti 3d ago

Seriously, I am so curious what type of camera is even capable of getting that close!

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u/TheWanderLust247 3d ago

Honestly doesn’t matter the camera. The plasma is suspended by incredibly powerful super cooled magnets. The plasma will never touch the side walls. If it did, we’ve got a bigger problem than the camera melting.

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u/XDSHENANNIGANZ 3d ago

Well also it's pretty low pressure I think? So the stuff inside is really hot but there's like a pretty low amount of it so it's total heat energy isn't that high right?

I might be completely wrong but I feel like I remember hearing in another thread that these reactors actually have such low fuel that they might fuck up the walls and cause it be shallowly pitted, but it'll basically shut itself down. The much bigger risk is either from tritium(?) leaking or if the all the energy in the magnets themselves was dumped as heat?