Permanent magnets help optimize geometry of future fusion reactor

According to reports, Michael Zarnstorff (Michael Zarnstorff) of the Max Planck Princeton Plasma Physics Research Center in New Jersey was helping his son with a science fair project (he wanted to build a rail gun). Realized that neodymium boron magnets are now powerful enough to be used in place of superconducting coils.

Saalsdorf's team's conceptual design combines simple toroidal superconducting coils with flat magnets attached to the outside of the plasma vacuum vessel. Just like a refrigerator magnet, only sticks to one side, creating a magnetic field mainly inside the container.

To this end, the researchers proposed a simplified design of a fusion reactor based on strong permanent magnets.

It is understood that when the nuclear fusion reactor was in the prototype stage, they confined the plasma in a ring magnetic field and heated it to millions of degrees Celsius. The goal was to fuse light nuclei into heavy nuclei and release a lot of energy.

There's also a component called a stellator, which requires complex superconducting coils to twist the plasma as it travels in a donut. It is undeniable that this is a design with great potential.

In the future, superconducting coils will be easier to manufacture and leave more space around vacuum vessels, scientists say, and could be used as key components in future fusion reactors.