More nrg out than in, the new multi billion dollar project that sounds like BS but is not

[backseatjuan]

Meet tokomak. A tokamak is a device that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape. Such a helical field can be generated by adding a toroidal field (traveling around the torus in circles) and a poloidal field (traveling in circles orthogonal to the toroidal field). In a tokamak, the toroidal field is produced by electromagnets that surround the torus, and the poloidal field is the result of a toroidal electric current that flows inside the plasma. This current is induced inside the plasma with a second set of electromagnets.

They are building a thermonuclear reactor. Basically they are going to fuse hydrogen into helium, and get energy out of it. More energy that they put into the electromagnets. Megawatts? Perhaps gigawatts? Whether this 1956 technology gone high tech succeeds or fails depends on many factors. Future will tell.