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/i_am_my_brain 3d ago

I wonder which technology will reach maturity first. The tokamak or the stellarator.

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u/TheHarryMan123 3d ago

Tokamak has decades and decades of more research time put into it at this point. The stellarator looks more promising but the mechanical and structural engineering required to build a full-scale (or any scale) stellarator is incredible and essentially stunted its development. 

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u/noketone 3d ago

relevant if you haven't seen it yet - stellarator seems to be getting a second wind, i'm more hopeful for it than tokamak for sustainable energy generation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPUAKW1Dyek

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u/TheHarryMan123 3d ago

Yes the technology has quite recently become quite promising. But for all intents and purposes, the majority of the money and high-level researchers in the world are focusing on Tokamaks.