德国将启动一个庞大机器来变革能源使用方式 [美国媒体]

Germanyis about to start up a monster machine that could revolutionize the way we useenergy

德国即将启动一个庞大机器从而变革能源使用方式



For more than 60 years, scientists havedreamed of a clean, inexhaustible energy source in the form of nuclear fusion.

60多年来，科学家一直梦想着通过核聚变的方式获得一种无穷无尽的清洁能源来源。

And they're still dreaming.

他们依然在梦想着。

But thanks to the efforts of the Max PlanckInstitute for Plasma Physics, experts hope that might soon change.

但是多亏了马克思普朗克等离子物理研究所的努力，专家们希望这一点可能即将得到改变。

Last year, after 1.1 million constructionhours, the institute completed the world's largest nuclear-fusion machine ofits kind, called a stellarator.

去年，在经历了110万个建筑工时后，该研究院完成了世界上最大的核聚变机器，称为等离子仿星器。

The machine, which has a diameter of 52feet, is called the W7-X.

这款机器直径52英尺，叫做W7-X。

And after more than a year of tests,engineers are finally ready to fire up the $1.1 billion machine for the firsttime. It could happen before the end of this month, Sciencereported.

在经过1年多的测试后，工程师正准备首次开动这款耗资11亿美元的机器。《科学》杂志报道，这个开动将在本月底之前发生。

Chin Keong 32 minutes ago
Salute the plasma sun, I knew all alongthat there must be an explanation why sun surface is hotter than the core,there are plasma! and we always have misunderstood the power of Electromagneticpower that the universe control the equation of the formation of star. Gravityare only subset of the bigger picture of it...so glad to be prove to be an EEEngineer, sun is created in the lab is real now by thinking outside ofconventional wisdom , pure puzzle solving confusing IRS tagged conning Math vsEarth saving practical Engineering skill, the truth shall set us free!!!

向等离子太阳致敬，我一直以来就认为太阳表面比太阳中心要热肯定是有原因的，没错就是等离子造成的！而我们一直以来都误解了电磁力量的威力，以为宇宙控制着恒星构成的等式。重力只是更大图景的一个子集。只要冲出传统智慧的束缚，太阳是可以在实验室里得到制造的

B H 3hours ago
The longer that hot plasma can be heldstable, the more fusion reaction happens in the plasma, and the enormous amountenergy released would heat up the plasma further,and the hotter plasma wouldresult in more fusion reaction. What they are trying to do is for thesemachines to keep this cycle going. Of course they haven't figured out if thatactually happens, how they'd harness the energy from 300 million degree celsiusplasma without destabilizing it and without the fusion becomes a runawayreaction with uncontrollable temperature. These are problems for the nextmillennium. hehe.

热等离子稳定的时间越长，等离子中发生的核聚变反应就越多，然后不断释放出的巨大能量会进一步的对等离子进行加热，等离子变热后又会产生更多的核聚变。所以他们现在正在做的事情就是利用这些机器让这样的循环不断的持续下去。当然他们还没有彻底理解这种情况是否真的会发生，而且科学家们也不知道要如何驾驭等离子所产生的300亿摄氏度的温度，也不知道要如何阻止等离子在不可控温度下发生失控反应。所以这些都是下一个千年需要解决的事情。呵呵。

curmudg 10 hours ago
Fusion is one of those things we pursue,less because we know we can do it, than because we just possibly might be ableto, and it would be a shame to chicken out and give up simply because it lookedimpossibly hard. Maybe it is; maybe it isn't. We'll give it a try and see howit goes, and then another try. The payoff, if we ever do succeed, isincalculable. The cost of trying is tolerable, and even in failure we learnthings about the design and operation of complicated machinery.

核聚变是值得我们追求的事情之一，不是因为我们知道自己可以达成，而是因为我们可能可以达成，如果因为看起来巨难就放弃的话，那就太可耻了。我们总得试一试看看结果如何。如果我们成功的话，那我们所获得的报偿将是无限的。这样的实验成本是我们负担得起的，即使我们失败了，我们也能学到复杂机器的设计和运作上的一些经验。

Judge 12hours ago
Very good article in this weeks"Time" magazine on fusion also. This could very well be mans nextsource of energy in the future. The Times article entertained the fact that wewill be using fusion as a source of energy with in thirty years. Reading both articles,however leads me to believe otherwise. I hope Germany,and the researchers in the U.S.can eventually figure this out. This again, could change world order, in aheartbeat. I wish them all the luck in the world.

本周《时代》杂志也就核聚变发表了一篇非常好的文章。核聚变能源可以成为人类下一个的能源来源。时代杂志列出事实称我们可能会在30年后获得核聚变能源。然后读了这篇文章后，我又认为不太可能了。我希望德国和美国科学家最终可以找到解决办法。因为这种能源可以立马改变世界秩序。我祝愿他们好运。

al 4hours ago
"Tokamaks thus consume more energythan they produce, which is not what you want from nuclear-fusion reactors,which have been touted as the "most important energy source over the nextmillennium." I'm no physicist, but this does not sound promising. Unlessthere is someway that the energy could be continuously produced after theinitial reaction, what is the point? Using more energy to create less energy??I guess they could use solar power to charge up some huge capacitors thatdischarge and cause the initial reaction - that is one way they could create anet positive

“因此托卡马克装置（一种受控热核反应装置）的能源消耗比能源产出还要多，这不是你想从核聚变反应堆里看到的，而这种核反应堆被吹嘘成‘未来千年最重要的能源来源’”
我不是核物理学家，但是这听起来并不让人觉得前途无量。除非有某种方式可以在原始的反应后不断的产生能源。所以有什么意义呢？用更多的能源来创造更少的能源？我猜他们可以利用太阳能来给某些巨型的电容器充电从而产生原始的反应——这是他们可以产生效益的一种方法。

Sergeant_Friday 3 hours ago
But there's a problem: Tokamaks can controlthe plasma only in short bursts that last for no more than seven minutes. Andthe energy necessary to generate that plasma is more than the energy engineers getfrom these periodic bursts.
Over three dozen tokamaks are operational around the world
What am I missing here?? Why are there any tokamaks if it takes more energy tocreate than it generates other than for research?

但是有一个问题：托卡马克装置只有在短脉冲中才能控制等离子，而短脉冲最多只持续7分钟。而产生等离子所需的能量比工程师从短脉冲所获得的能量还更多。
目前全世界有30多个托卡马克装置在运行。
如果消耗的能源比产生的能源还要多，那除了研究目的外，建造那么多托卡马克装置有何用？

kellee 6minutes ago
Using the Earth's mantle to boil water thatturn turbines to create electricity is, in my opinion, the safest route tosustainable, renewable energy. No dealing with radioactive waste or highpowered magnetic fields and you can use seawater, which would turn intodistilled fresh water, then all you would have to do is reintroduce essentialminerals to have potable water.

利用地幔给水加热从而产生电力，在我看来这才是获得可持续新能源的最安全的方式。不存在放射性废弃物或高能磁场，而且可以使用海水，将海水转变成蒸馏淡水，然后再加入主要的矿物质，这样就生成了饮用水了。