> Fusion reactors in Virginia
I was curious and did the reading. The technology still doesn't exist as far as I can tell. Even according to the Commonwealth Fusion Systems who says they will build in Virginia.
The International Atomic Energy Association says:
> there are still some technological issues to address before a commercial power plant can operate. A prototype of a fusion reactor (DEMO) is expected to be built by 2040. [1]
The technology absolutely exist, and CFS are proving it.
Please note the date. This is the reactor being built. CFS has come a long way since inception. DEMO is a joke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkpqA8yG9T4
I wish Commonwealth Fusion Systems to sucessed in the plan for commercial fusion electricity production, but they still have many technical problems to solve. They will probably demostrate fusion containment with fusion energy gain factor greater then 1 (more like 10), the primary goal.
But fusion power plants needs to breed and separare tritium, prevent excessive tritium losses in the first wall. The plasma-facing materials in tokamak are subject to very harsh conditions, mutch harder conditions then reactor walls in a fission power plant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma-facing_material
They also need a way to extract power from 1,000,000C heat. Since we have absolutely no idea how to do that, fusion is still a non-starter...FOR ENERGY PRODUCTION. Fusion can be used for other things but power production won't be one of those things in any of our lifetimes if ever. That being said, we still should do the research and use fusion for what it is useful for. Its just that those uses don't include power production.
The high temperature of the plasma is not a problem for energy production (the plasma temperature is much higher then 1,000,000C, fusion reactions become self-sustaining at temperatures between 50 and 100 million Kelvin). Nothing physical can touch the plasma, because anything touching the plasma would melt and, much bigger issue: the plasma would rapidly loose temperature and nuclear fusion reactions would stop. Therefor energy is extracted from plasma in an indirect way.
This part is quite well known and follows the design of classic thermal power plants.
Radiation heat from the fusion heats-up the inner wall of the vacuum vessel. This heats up working fluid flowing behind the inner wall (in case of CFS then plain is to use a molten salt: FLiBe). Also there a second, more important effect: deuterium-tritium fueled tokamaks release 80% of produced energy in the form of high energy neutrons. Large part of energy of neutrons has to be captured by the working fluid for the power plant to be economically viable.
Heat from the working fluid is transferred using a heat-exchanger to heat water and produced steam, which drives a steam turbine and an electric generator.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLiBe
FLiBe as a working fluid is not a new concept and has been already demonstrated in molten salt fission reactors.