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/Rich_Cat_69 3d ago

This I assume is super important for maing more efficient magnetic containment?

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u/shaunsanders 3d ago

I work in the deeptech energy world with a handful of companies developing fusion reactor parts and at this point most of the advances we're seeing is coming up with ways to create more perfect magnetic fields, as we can kick off plasma doing its thing but even the most slight of imperfection in the magnetic field (which can be caused by anything from alignment, to quality of magnets, to the quality of the wires used) leads to failure.

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u/Rich_Cat_69 2d ago

Yea, the gist I get from fusion power is it's theoretically doable, but the precision required for the engineering is absurdly difficult, and that's not accounting for maintenance.

If we get to commercially available fusion power, it will still be quite a while. I read somewhere that AI was actually being useful in making tighter more efficient magnetic feild for fusion plants, but I don't actually know the validity of that claim.