CAPSLOCKSTUCK
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Last year, scientists started up a new type of massive nuclear fusion reactor for the first time, known as a stellarator.
http://www.ipp.mpg.de/14779/stellarator
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald, Germany, injected a tiny amount of hydrogen and heated it until it became plasma, effectively mimicking conditions inside the sun.
But since then scientists have been asking whether the ambitious device - named Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) - works as it is supposed to, producing the right magnetic fields.
Now a research paper has shown tests over the past few months have proven the complex design is working as expected.
The hydrogen was heated in the doughnut-shaped Wendelstein 7-X machine (illustrated). Called a stellarator, the device uses a complicated system of magnetic coils to trap plasma long enough for fusion to take place
Two of the main contenders for nuclear reactors of the future are called tokamaks and stellarators.
Instead of trying to control plasma with just a 2D magnetic field, which is the approach used by the more common tokamak reactors, the stellerator works by generating twisted, 3D magnetic fields.
The new results could be a key step in verifying the feasibility of stellarators for use in future fusion reactors.
Since the machine has been switched on, researchers have been trying to answer the important question of whether or not it is producing the right magnetic fields.
This is crucial because the magnetic field in the machine is the only thing that will trap hot balls of plasma long enough for nuclear fusion to occur.
Physicist Sam Lazerson of the US Department of Energy teamed with the German scientists to test the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device.
Now the report, published in Nature Communications, has proven it does work as planned.
Fusion involves placing hydrogen atoms under high heat and pressure until they fuse into helium atoms. In stellarators, plasma is contained by external magnetic coils which create twisted field lines around the inside of the vacuum chamber (illustrated)
http://www.ipp.mpg.de/14779/stellarator
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Greifswald, Germany, injected a tiny amount of hydrogen and heated it until it became plasma, effectively mimicking conditions inside the sun.
But since then scientists have been asking whether the ambitious device - named Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) - works as it is supposed to, producing the right magnetic fields.
Now a research paper has shown tests over the past few months have proven the complex design is working as expected.

The hydrogen was heated in the doughnut-shaped Wendelstein 7-X machine (illustrated). Called a stellarator, the device uses a complicated system of magnetic coils to trap plasma long enough for fusion to take place
Two of the main contenders for nuclear reactors of the future are called tokamaks and stellarators.
Instead of trying to control plasma with just a 2D magnetic field, which is the approach used by the more common tokamak reactors, the stellerator works by generating twisted, 3D magnetic fields.
The new results could be a key step in verifying the feasibility of stellarators for use in future fusion reactors.
Since the machine has been switched on, researchers have been trying to answer the important question of whether or not it is producing the right magnetic fields.
This is crucial because the magnetic field in the machine is the only thing that will trap hot balls of plasma long enough for nuclear fusion to occur.
Physicist Sam Lazerson of the US Department of Energy teamed with the German scientists to test the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device.
Now the report, published in Nature Communications, has proven it does work as planned.

Fusion involves placing hydrogen atoms under high heat and pressure until they fuse into helium atoms. In stellarators, plasma is contained by external magnetic coils which create twisted field lines around the inside of the vacuum chamber (illustrated)