Comment by metalman
4 days ago
there is destroyed and then there is a smoking hole in the side of the planet:) but I think it fair to say, that after 22 min running, that there is no way that it can be turned back on later kind of thing, fairly sure its a pwhew!, lookatdat!, almost lost plasma containment.... keep in mind that they are trying to replicate the conditions found inside a star with some magnets and stuff, sure its ferociously engineered stuff but not at all like the stuff that could exist inside a star so all in all a rather audacious endevour, and I wish them luck with it
The system is not breakeven and the plasma was contained for 22 minutes so the situation would be the plasma was contained until it ran out of fuel. It is made out of tungsten for heat dissipation, has active cooling, has magnetic confinement with superconductors to prevent the system from destroying itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEST_(formerly_Tore_Supra)
Fusion energy gain factor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_energy_gain_factor :
> A fusion energy gain factor, usually expressed with the symbol Q, is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma in steady state