Scientists confirm thermonuclear fusion in a sheared-flow Z-pinch device

phys.org

15 points·danboarder··4 comments

For anyone that doesn't immediately recognize the "Z-pinch device" ... its one of the most amazing machines in the world to see when running... not that you'll see it with your eyes... for very good safety reasons... but when people talk about high energy physics being all about dull particle accelerators I like to point out the Z-Pinch device as an example of high energy physics that has spectacular visual effects associated with it, the sort we normally associate with special effects in movies.

The "flashover" which is captured wonderfully here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_Pulsed_Power_Facility#/media... is just amazing.

That photo is amazing, thanks for sharing! This is the first I've heard of the Z-Pinch device, now I'm interested to learn more about it and how it compares to a Tokamak and other fusion device configurations.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Livermore_National_La...>

Imposing Chaos on Magnetic Fields Suppresses Runaway Electrons in Fusion Plasma <https://www.energy.gov/science/fes/articles/imposing-chaos-m...>

Generation and Suppression of runaway-electrons in MST tokamak-plasmas <https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1602423-generation-suppression-r...>

Here is a clip from the BBC showing the Z Machine in action, pushing 26 million amps. The Z Machine - Can We Make A Star? https://youtu.be/eaopaLJk3-Y

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