predicting tokamak heat layer

Source: Princeton University - Scientist finds new way to predict heat layer troublemaker in fusion research

I've long wondered how this 'magic' worked. The fusion heat can be expressed as energetic particles or radiant heat. Our Sun is 93 million miles away so we've evolved a planetary life system that is radiant heat driven. But a tokomaks is 'up front and personal.' Getting the heat energy out in any useful way while not destroying the mechanism . . . it makes our Prius studies seem trivial.

Understand I remain somewhat skeptical of fusion power but it sounds like breakeven power generation may actually happen in my lifetime.

Bob Wilson

 

Understand I only have a layman's understanding of the fusion reactions so I may get some of this wrong. There should be some 'bleed' of neutrons from the fusion reaction. The theory is they have such low kinetic energy they won't convert the walls into long-lived, toxic, wall destroying, radioactive isotopes.This bit of nuclear magic has never really been explained to me very well. Just I know some neutrons carry energy away and won't form isotopes with many materials and others are 'a bad news at Red Rock.'

The second part of the problem is you don't want photons to be of such a high flux and short wavelength that they melt the interior surface. These are likely to be pretty energetic with a lot of UV and some materials don't like to be UV bathed. One hopes there is some absorption and re-radiating at lower wave lengths but . . . My understanding is some of the initial radiation may be in the xray region. This is not too bad for most materials but biological critters need to keep their distance and/or be shielded.

Bob Wilson