Does anyone know whether nuclear fusion energy gain numbers contain energy requirements for keeping the magnets cooled and the vacuum at high quality?
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Replying to @skdh
usually not; the Q for ignition (5) is basically about the amount of energy absorbed by alpha particles directly, the physicists handwave away the magnet cooling and vacuum maintenance energy costs as something that asymptotes out; micro reactor people sometimes factor it in
4 replies 2 retweets 33 likes -
Replying to @DanielleFong
yeah, sounds like something physicists would do, exactly what I was worrying about :/
2 replies 1 retweet 21 likes
it makes sense for the really big reactors, not so much where finite size effects dominate. the main factor is how many alpha particles really heat the reacting plasma vs some other part, it doesn’t help you near as much if they just heat the scrap off layer for example
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