The pursuit of fusion as a safe, carbon-free, always-on energy source has intensified in recent years, with a number of organizations pursuing aggressive timelines for technology demonstrations and power plant designs. New-generation superconducting magnets are a critical enabler for many of these programs, which creates growing need for sensors, controls, and other infrastructure that will allow the magnets to operate reliably in the harsh conditions of a commercial fusion power plant.
A collaborative group led by Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) doctoral student Erica Salazar recently took a step forward in this area with a promising new method for quick detection of a disruptive abnormality, quench, in powerful high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets. Salazar worked with NSE Assistant Professor Zach Hartwig of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) and Michael Segal of spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), along with members of the Swiss CERN research center and the Robinson Research Institute (RRI) at Victoria University in New Zealand to achieve the results, which were published in the journal Superconductor Science and Technology.
Stanching quench
Quench occurs when part of a magnet’s coil shifts out of a superconducting state, where it has no electrical resistance, and into a normal resistive state. This causes the massive current flowing through the coil, and stored energy in the magnet, to quickly convert into heat, and potentially cause serious internal damage to the coil.
Novel design could help shed excess heat in next-generation fusion power plants
A class exercise at MIT, aided by industry researchers, has led to an innovative solution to one of the longstanding challenges facing the development of practical fusion power plants: how to get rid of excess heat that would cause structural damage to the plant.
The new solution was made possible by an innovative approach to compact fusion reactors, using high-temperature superconducting magnets. This method formed the basis for a massive new research program launched this year at MIT and the creation of an independent startup company to develop the concept. The new design, unlike that of typical fusion plants, would make it possible to open the device’s internal chamber and replace critical components; this capability is essential for the newly proposed heat-draining mechanism.
The new approach is detailed in a paper in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design, authored by Adam Kuang, a graduate student from that class, along with 14 other MIT students, engineers from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and Professor Dennis Whyte, director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, who taught the class.
You may be most familiar with the element lithium as an integral component of your smart phone’s battery, but the element also plays a role in the development of clean fusion energy. When used on tungsten surfaces in fusion devices, lithium can reduce periodic instabilities in plasma that can damage the reactor walls, scientists have found.
The results, demonstrated by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and collaborators on China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) found that lithium powder can eliminate instabilities known as edge-localized modes (ELMs) when used to coat a tungsten plasma-facing component called the “divertor” – the unit that exhausts waste heat and particles from plasma that fuels fusion reactions. If left alone, such instabilities can damage the divertor and cause fusion reactions to fizzle.
The results are good news for future devices that plan to use tungsten for their own divertors that are designed to work with lithium.
Thought I was out of Witcher fusions and then pulled this last one out my sleeve. Dandelion and Triss Merigold. Probably goes by a yellow flower name (Sunflower)? They honestly wear such similar outfits with the boots and collars and gauntlet looking things it’s really funny.
Did a Geralt and Yen fusion! Not a big fan of the design so I might have to revisit it at some point. But like. Aesthetic very cool. Also would probably take up the name Raven (after the Griffin Witcher who had the raven’s armour).
Guess who committed some fandom war crimes and made character fusions! *slaps table* ITS ME.
So uh this is a Geralt and Dandelion fusion. (Dubbed Jerral because that’s an actual name! It means strong and open minded which honestly fits.) Kind of got an emo bard aesthetic. The more you progress the more beta the design gets lol.
So I guess this is the Witcher Froston-equivalent. If you guys have better name suggestions feel free to smack ‘em in the comments
And Pokenatural because I still have a lot of ideas for these fusions! Today is Claire Novak, daughter of Castiel’s vessel’s Jimmy, who despite the attempts of everyone in her life has become a great hunter… with her Cubone that understands very well the pain of losing your parents when young.
In a weird case, Claire didn’t catch her Cubone. Instead, this little fella saw her alone and suffering after she escaped her gramma’s and started following her everyone. Claire wasn’t happy originally, and even refused to call him anything but “you” or “dude” because she though he’d left her like everyone else in her life, but the Cubone stayed.
Only Kaira knows that now, the Cubone’s name is Dean.
One last post that probably seems to have less context to the last ones since Lucille didn’t post his ramble, but the reason our system is choosing to probably do final fusion is not because we don’t like our parts or don’t see ourselves as complete individuals on our own, but because we love, respect, and trust each other. It’s like having a long term partner and getting married and melding your lives together. It isn’t because you aren’t real separate or that you don’t value alone time or don’t want either to have freedom, it’s because you really respect, trust, love, and enjoy spending time with this person, because being around the other person makes you feel like your best self. We’re probably going towards final fusion because generally speaking, we are better people with one another than alone.
One last post that probably seems to have less context to the last ones since Lucille didn’t post his ramble, but the reason our system is choosing to probably do final fusion is not because we don’t like our parts or don’t see ourselves as complete individuals on our own, but because we love, respect, and trust each other. It’s like having a long term partner and getting married and melding your lives together. It isn’t because you aren’t real separate or that you don’t value alone time or don’t want either to have freedom, it’s because you really respect, trust, love, and enjoy spending time with this person, because being around the other person makes you feel like your best self. We’re probably going towards final fusion because generally speaking, we are better people with one another than alone.
I had the chance to work on an illustration for a christmas gift which theme was : Steven Universe ! It represents a crystal gem couple and their fusion, along with their lovely pets. I loved working on this and I’m glad people came to me for this commission. Merry Christmas everyone !
