In order to measure this fission heat output?

The ionized plasma is susceptible to containment within magnetic fields. Tokamaks are shaped like donuts to facilitate this process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak

Not to be picky, but there’s a big difference. Fusion is what powers the sun and also, the H-bomb. Two hydrogen atoms smash into each other, fusing to form helium, releasing energy and light (as a star ages, helium is fused into heavier elements).

Fission is what we are currently capable of doing on large scale for energy production. Splitting uranium-235 atoms, releasing energy, and leaving behind highly radioactive waste isotopes of iodine, caesium, strontium, xenon and barium.

That iodine is really bad for you. In the event of a nuclear plant meltdown, if you don’t take iodine pills, your thyroid will take up that radioactive iodine and kill you.

Glad to help explain it. Lots of physics and chemistry classes between my biology and nursing degrees. Finally good for something! 😂

They are the backbone of hospital care.

I am still waiting.

We live within 90 miles of 5 nuke plants, including 2 under 15 miles away.
When they were being built, tradesmen openly admitted to doing bad welds or adding excess water to concrete so they'd fail inspections, have to be ripped out & done again.
And again. At 4 of the 5 plants. (The first one involved government funding & oversight. )
The plant closest to me cost 3x the estimate when it was all done.
That huge over-investment caused rates to go UP(!) not down.
But, management cut (yes, cut) inspection budgets & bodies. Saved $10 so they could spend a hundred.
Obviously, the too cheap to meter was always hyperbole, but it never even provided a modest cost benefit to consumers.

...well, not for the fossil fuel industry though.

They sustained the reaction for just under a minute.

It's going to be a long time before they learn how to turn short, intermittent bursts of ferocious heat into a power source.

Shit. That beats the hell out of previous records that were fractions of a second and then up to just a few seconds (last I heard). Progress.

According to the CNN article. Beating the old record of 30 seconds.

Unfortunately I can only put 4 paragraphs in the OP (as "fair use" ) but if one actually reads the article, the next paragraph down has this -

to most laymen. Sustaining it beyond a flash is very impressive.

My eyesight is beyond terrible, I found the "just under a minute" on one of the science=ish sites.

I know what you mean about the fair use restriction, I usually snip articles to death. BBC is worse than CNN, they don't know the difference between a sentence and a paragraph, so each sentence is a paragraph.

I prefer to leave them "intact" without snips. Posting anyplace else, I'll cut them up.

(and as a retired scientist, any kind of "EUREKA!" breakthrough is welcome, no matter how brief )

for more than milliseconds is pretty remarkable, I'll grant you, but it's still not harvestable energy. That 20 million degrees, or whatever it was, looks impressive until you realize how tiny it was, it's like trying to warm your hands on a candle flame in the next room.

They're getting closer all the time, but I've given up on seeing Mr. Fusion in my lifetime.

after early attempts like this -



whoda thunk one day it would lead to this in someone's lifetime -

are like, since they must need a hint.

The 48 seconds of fusion produced more energy than was put in.
A certain amount of the output will have to go back into the system to keep it running. But we will need to transmit and or store the excess somehow. That will require much more in infrastructure upgrades to handle that heat.

That is the next issue.

...from such a miniscule bit of matter.
I'm in wonder of the natural world sometimes.

Thanx for posting.

getting there.