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
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Replying to @DanielleFong @skdh
Ignition represents Q of infinity, not Q of 5; it's when the plasma continues to fuse through self-heating via ongoing fusion and does not require the injection of additional energy.
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Replying to @Phanatic1a @skdh
sure, you can compress the entire dynamic range after a critical value (5- inf) to infinity, but i prefer not to do this. anyway, the threshold for self heating is about 5, after which you can get ignition
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Replying to @DanielleFong @skdh
Gain required for self-heating sufficient to keep fusion going is way more than 5. It's at *least* 5 for D:T fusion because 80% of the reaction energy is coming out in the form of the neutron and isn't contributing to self-heating.
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