Dennis Whyte
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
So then this means is that the electromagnets are configured in such a way that it produces the desired magnetic fields around this.
How precise does this have to be?
You were probably listening to our conversation with some of my colleagues yesterday.
So it's actually, it depends on the configuration about how you're doing it.
The configuration of the electromagnets and about how you're achieving this requirement.
It's fairly precise, but it doesn't have to be, particularly in something like a tokamak, what we do is we produce planar coils, which just mean they're flat, and we situate them.
So if you think of a circle like this,
What does it produce if you put current through it?
It produces a magnetic field which goes through the circle like this.
So, if you align many of them like this, this, this, this, there's things online.
You can go see the picture.
You keep arranging these around in a circle itself.
This forces the magnetic field lines to basically just keep executing around like this.
So, you tend to align.
That one tends to โ well, it requires โ
good alignment.
It's not like insane alignment because you're actually exploiting the symmetry of the situation to help it.
There's another kind of configuration of magnetic, of this kind of magnetic confinement called a stellarator, which is, we have these names for historic reasons.
It's different than a tokamak, but it actually works on the same physical principle, that namely, in the end it produces a plasma which loops in magnetic fields, which loop back on themselves as well.
But in that case, the totality, basically, the totality of the confining magnetic field is produced by external three-dimensional magnets, so they're twisted.