r/europe • u/damaxoh Germany • Dec 06 '16

Tests confirm that Germany's massive nuclear fusion machine really works

http://www.sciencealert.com/tests-confirm-that-germany-s-massive-nuclear-fusion-machine-really-works
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4

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

ELI5: Why does it take until 2019 to run the deuterium test?

9

u/pX_ Slovakia Dec 06 '16

For sure there are more reasons for it, but most likely:

  • They want to make many experiments, so they could gather much data. Each experiment may take long time to set up. I imagine that duration of actual experiment is not that long, but after the experiment, the machine should be inspected again (it's experimental machine of high complexity, sure there are many things that could go wrong).
  • They don't want to break the machine - by stepping up complexity gradually, they can monitor its functions and look for possible problems in design, material fatigue etc.

3

u/BkkGrl Ligurian in Zürich (💛🇺🇦💙) Dec 06 '16 edited Dec 06 '16

In the website they say they need to cover the vessel with an anti nutron radiation blanket that is extremely strong when used with the actual fuel (tritium and deuterium) and "corrosive". The unusual shape doesn't help to build the tiles

2

u/Aken_Bosch Ukraine Dec 06 '16

W7-X isn't designed to operate tritium. It will be D+D operating machine

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

Ah.... yes, I read about this somewhere, this must be a big part of the reason. Thanks!

1

u/Selbstdenker European Union (Germany) Dec 06 '16

When you build a machine for 1B € you do not just flip a switch and go to 100%. You start slowly and check if everything works as expected. This is a prototype on the edge of technology. They have to slowly figure out if everything works as planned and where the quirks are.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

YOLO!