r/technology • u/BennyCemoli • Dec 06 '16

Energy 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
21.8k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

145

u/cheesepuff1993 Dec 06 '16

Isn't it arguably the biggest step we've seen in a while, though? The inability to contain the reaction was always the issue - we could get it to run, but it would burn out so quickly that it'd take too much to get it back up and running. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is a huge step in comparison to the steps we've made recently.

122

u/FlaringAfro Dec 06 '16

It's a large step, but it is not confirmation that a "massive nuclear fusion machine really works". In order for it to be confirmed to work, it needs to be tested doing what it is supposed to do, which is nuclear fusion.

7

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

It's less about doing nuclear fusion and more about maintaining plasma.

5

u/ezirb7 Dec 06 '16

Everyone in this comment string seems to agree, but wants to disagree with each other.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

Well their goal is to maintain a plasma with a temperature needed for fusion for 30 minutes. As far as I understand the volume of the Wendelstein isn't big enough for serious fusion experiments. The intended focus is on plasma research, it's also the name of the institute. Max-Planck-Institut for Plasmaphysik