
Watch Germany Switch on Its Experimental Fusion Reactor Live - insulanian
http://www.iflscience.com/physics/watch-germany-switch-their-experimental-fusion-reactor-live
======
imglorp
>... switched on by German chancellor Angela Merkel – who herself has a
doctorate in physics.

Why can't we get scientists in politics? :-(

I mean, a constitutional law professor isn't bad, and we've had an engineer
president once before, but those were the high points.

~~~
MrZongle2
I have no reason to doubt the technical skill of the engineer.

The constitutional law professor, on the other hand, seems to repeatedly
demonstrate either ignorance or contempt of that document, based upon the
actions of his administration.

~~~
frozenport
Who are you to say what the constitution says! He is a professor and knows
more than you!

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pluma
Seems it's all over already:
[http://www.ipp.mpg.de/livestream_e_16](http://www.ipp.mpg.de/livestream_e_16)

Countdown was at 3:35pm, ending at 3:50pm. It's past 4pm local time now and
the live stream is only showing the test video.

EDIT: They have an official YouTube channel at
[https://www.youtube.com/user/plasmaphysik/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/plasmaphysik/videos)
but haven't updated it yet. There's the video from December showing the helium
plasma, though.

~~~
Sujan
Now there is a speech by someone:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmFeG44euHY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmFeG44euHY)
(Watching to see if there is anything more...)

Update: Looots of speeches.

update2: Here is the interesting bit with someting happening, almost at the
end:
[https://youtu.be/KmFeG44euHY?t=2548](https://youtu.be/KmFeG44euHY?t=2548)

~~~
pluma
I was a bit confused when it looked like the presenter was introducing Angela
Merkel and then Sibylle Günter from MPI was the first speaker (Merkel herself
steps up roughly half-way through).

But yeah, it's rather uneventful to watch if you're not intimately familiar
with what's actually going on in that one second. Definitely not worth
watching for the speeches.

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leojg
So, if is a success this could maintain the reaction itself?

Which would be the next steps? Building a realone that could produce energy?

~~~
the8472
The presentation in the video[1] has a chart comparing it to other research
reactors

Older version of this chart on page 20 of this pdf[2].

Stellarators are still lagging behind tokamaks due to lower funding and higher
complexity of the asymmetric plasma.

[1] [https://youtu.be/KmFeG44euHY?t=478](https://youtu.be/KmFeG44euHY?t=478)
[2] [http://esv-
paf.de/images/stories/energie_fuer_alle_wochen/au...](http://esv-
paf.de/images/stories/energie_fuer_alle_wochen/auf_dem_weg_zu_einem_fusionskraftwerk_-
_bernadett_gmeiner_max-planck-institut_02.04.11.pdf)

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tosseraccount
Will this produce more energy than it consumes?

~~~
the8472
No, it won't produce much energy at all. They're only doing hydrogen and later
deuterium, i.e. no tritium injections. That'll only undergo minimal amounts of
fusion, so little that the reactor will barely get irradiated and can be
modified.

The goal is to learn what's necessary to build a bigger device.

