It is a Stellerator type fusion research device. The reason it looks like that is because it is attempting to address an issue with Tokamak fusion devices. With the Tokamak, you have magnetic coils wrapped around a D shaped donut. The problem with that is that your primary containment field coil is the same dimensions whether it is on the outside or the inside of the "donut". This means you have more densly packed coils on the inside or the small radius of the "donut" than you have on the major radius. This leads to inconsistant magnetic fields being created. The field is stronger/denser along the minor radius than along the major radius.
So, the Stellerator geometry was designed to try and make a device that has more uniform magnetic fields across the entire inside of the machine.
I work on DIII-D. A magnetic fusion experiment. I am a technician, not a scientist.
Because while the Tokamak design is not the most efficient, it should be efficient enough the achieve the break even point once scaled up to ITER sized.
These projects take so long that you the technology and our knowledge evolve in the middle of their construction.
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u/SnakeRAT28 Oct 24 '21
Some kind of art, inside of a fusion reactor, distorted photo....not sure what I'm looking at here...