Bifalgorithm post

China just finished a magnet that weighs 582 tons, heavier than a fully loaded Boeing 747. This is the toroidal field coil for the country's artificial sun, a machine in Hefe built to recreate, here on Earth, the reaction that powers the actual sun. It stands 21 meters long, 12 meters wide and weighs 582 tons, heavier than four adult blue whales packed into one magnet. Built in Hefe by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it passed full load testing on June 27. Its job is to hold a plasma at 100 million degrees so it never touches the wall. Engineers call it an invisible magnetic cage. 16 of them will form a ring, 100 kiloamps each, 6.5 Tesla at the center. Operating temperature, minus 269 Celsius. Design life, 60 years. A second magnet, the central solenoid, was rated for 46.5 kiloamps. They pushed it to 60. Every critical part was designed and built at home, with no reliance on foreign technology. A working fusion power plant is still years away, but clearing this hurdle pulls the dream of near limitless clean energy one serious step closer.

China just finished a magnet that weighs 582 tons, heavier than a fully loaded Boeing 747. This is the toroidal field coil for the country's artificial sun, a…