Author Topic: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09  (Read 6575 times)

Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #25 on: 18 February, 2009, 12:34:57 pm »
Yeah, that's why I was only slightly dissapointed. ;)

rae

Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #26 on: 18 February, 2009, 12:40:24 pm »
K-star looked real.   The lasers looked like a research project and you could see that it is highly unlikely to go into production: too complex, too delicate.   K-star looked like an engineering project rather than a science project.   One would assume that you don't go and build something like K-star without determining that it will work beforehand.  

I was quite surprised at the plasma containment times for JET - which is pretty old.  They seemed impressive.

Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #27 on: 18 February, 2009, 12:49:41 pm »
I designed and sold a very small part of Jet and spent a great day wandering about measuring stuff.  It's bloody huge!

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #28 on: 18 February, 2009, 12:51:27 pm »
Sure is, I went there on a SCHOOL trip.  Before they fired it up.  It was ace.

K-star is built on the knowledge gleaned from Jet and it's ilk.  JIF is the laser-igniter equivalent of Jet, IMO.
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #29 on: 18 February, 2009, 12:55:38 pm »
JET is big. ITER is MASSIVE!


[edit] I should point out that it's not built yet, but the site for it in Cadarache, South France is under development.

Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #30 on: 18 February, 2009, 12:57:47 pm »
How do they get the energy out of a Fusion reactor ? If its a vacuum where the plasma is kept from touching anything by a magnetic field what transfers the heat ? Wouldn't the plasma just melt any kind of heat exchanger it came into contact with ? Curious minds need to know.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

rae

Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #31 on: 18 February, 2009, 01:00:02 pm »
I would imagine that the radiant heat is pretty fierce.   Surround the plasma with gas and circulate it?  In the picture (above) it looks like they are going to cools the walls directly.


Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #32 on: 18 February, 2009, 01:07:15 pm »
Slaps head. Of course its so hot that the radiant heat does the trick. The Sun is a fusion reactor in a vacuum and does a good job of keeping the earth warm from millions of miles away. I am not thinking straight today.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #33 on: 18 February, 2009, 05:04:39 pm »
Not Bad. Brian Cox is well cool - he drives a Mustang, he shoots guns, he looks like a pop star, and he's a scientist!


Not that Brian Cox. Oh well - we have a seminar room named after the other one because he has raised so much money for diabetes research.

..d
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #34 on: 18 February, 2009, 10:47:53 pm »
I watched this tonight and it was very good  :thumbsup:

Did anyone notice the guy spinning past on his fixer when Brian was in San Francisco?  :P
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #35 on: 19 February, 2009, 09:38:25 am »
It wasn't just me, then?   ;D
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: TOKAMAKTASTIC! Horizon BBC2 9pm 17/02/09
« Reply #36 on: 19 February, 2009, 11:07:48 am »
Not Bad. Brian Cox is well cool - he drives a Mustang, he shoots guns, he looks like a pop star, and he's a scientist!

It only takes one of those four to be cool  8)