Fusion Breakthrough Once Thought Impossible Brings Energy Device Closer to Realization

Nuclear fusion would be all we need for sustainable energy supply for humanity going forward!

Forget about (pre-industrial) wind mills and solar power! In hindsight, these will be considered by future generations as dominant human follies!

Why do we not invest more money into nuclear fusion power!

"The breakthrough shows how to more precisely shape the enclosing magnetic fields in stellarators to create an unprecedented ability to hold the fusion fuel together.

“The key thing was developing a piece of software that allows you to rapidly try out new design methods,” ...
The current breakthrough produces what is called “quasisymmetry” in stellarators to nearly match the confining ability of a tokamak’s symmetrical fields. While scientists have long sought to produce quasisymmetry in twisting stellarators, the new research develops a trick to create it nearly precisely. The trick uses new open-source software called SIMSOPT (Simons Optimization Suite) that is designed to optimize stellarators by slowly refining the simulated shape of the boundary of the plasma that marks out the magnetic fields. ..."

From the abstract:

"Quasisymmetry is an unusual symmetry that can be present in toroidal magnetic fields, enabling the confinement of charged particles and plasma. Here it is shown that both quasiaxisymmetry and quasihelical symmetry can be achieved to a much higher precision than previously thought over a significant volume, resulting in exceptional confinement. For a 1 Tesla mean field far from axisymmetry (vacuum rotational transform >0.4), symmetry-breaking mode amplitudes throughout a volume of aspect ratio 6 can be made as small as the typical ∼50μT

 geomagnetic field."

Fusion Breakthrough Once Thought Impossible Brings Energy Device Closer to Realization

Magnetic Fields with Precise Quasisymmetry for Plasma Confinement (no public access)