Questions regarding stellarators

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the potential of stellarators, specifically the Wendelstein 7-X, to achieve long plasma discharges and energy breakeven. It is established that stellarators can theoretically maintain plasma discharges indefinitely, limited only by heating, cooling, and stability factors. Unlike tokamaks, which require induced plasma currents and have discharge limits of a few minutes, stellarators utilize a fixed magnetic field geometry, allowing for continuous operation. Future stellarators may achieve energy breakeven similar to ITER, but this remains under investigation.

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Ortala
I have two questions regarding stellarators:

how long can a plasma discharge last in a stellarator? wendelstein 7-x supposedly will achieve 30 minutes in the future with a water-cooled divertor, but can future stellarators achieve longer discharges? or is it going to be like the tokamaks where there is a fundamental limit of a few minutes due to the effects of the plasma current?

Also, can a future stellarator achieve energy breakeven due to size like ITER ?
 
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Ortala said:
how long can a plasma discharge last in a stellarator?
There is no hard limit. As long as heating and cooling work and no instability appears the plasma can stay. A power plant would try to run it continuously.
A tokamak has to induce a plasma current which means it has to ramp up magnets, and that can't go on forever. A stellarator avoids that, it directly provides a suitable magnetic field geometry from its coils and does not need a plasma current for it.
Ortala said:
Also, can a future stellarator achieve energy breakeven due to size like ITER ?
Probably, but that is still studied.
 

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