Nuclear Fusion...maybe yet in my lifetime?

muncybob
muncybob Posts: 3,052
in The Clubhouse
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11533391/A-major-breakthrough-decade-long-quest-harness-nuclear-fusion-announced-TODAY.html
Yep, my name really is Bob.
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  • Emlyn
    Emlyn Posts: 4,525
    Where there's money to be made it's likely to progress faster than people expect now it's been proven to work in a lab. There have been companies working in parallel to figure out ways to channel the power generated from such technology once ignition was achieved. Power generation is likely still more than a decade away.

    I heard this morning the amount of power generated was 1.5 times input. That's a lot of gain.
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  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 19,124
    Clean energy, no nuclear or radioactive waste. I can dig it!

    Tom
    ~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~
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  • SIHAB
    SIHAB Posts: 4,957
    21pyrj0uyog8.jpeg
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    Emlyn wrote: »
    Where there's money to be made it's likely to progress faster than people expect now it's been proven to work in a lab. There have been companies working in parallel to figure out ways to channel the power generated from such technology once ignition was achieved. Power generation is likely still more than a decade away.

    I heard this morning the amount of power generated was 1.5 times input. That's a lot of gain.

    Not net, though, at that level of energy production (at least, according to the fluff news piece I heard on NPR this morning)-- plus, I guess it's pulsatile (i.e., not sustainable). It's kind of like an itty-bitty fusion bomb core. A gold sphere containing a diamond core with a little bit of tritium and/or deuterium gas at the focal point of some immensely powerful laser beams.

    We need continuous, sustained fusion.
    The good news, if we can do that, we're pretty well all set, in perpetuity.
    It's a start, though -- i.e., I don't mean to be entirely pessimistic. More like realistic.

    The funny thing is, a couple of years ago, there were all sorts of VC-funded startups that supposedly/ostensibly had novel, quick, cheap ways to do what the huge, obscenely funded and resourced labs like the National Ignition Facility had (in those days) failed for decades to accomplish.
    So... who knows where all those little companies are today...?
    There was one (out of MIT, IIRC) that was located in the old Ft. Devens "north fort" area, just minutes (even walking) from our old digs in Harvard, MA.

    The whole sustained, controlled fusion thing is (I'd say) the last, great hope -- and it sure as heck ought to be achievable... but the clock's ticking...

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  • Emlyn
    Emlyn Posts: 4,525
    treitz3 wrote: »
    Clean energy, no nuclear or radioactive waste. I can dig it!

    Tom

    I wonder if eventually enough fusion reactors on the planet would turn Earth into a star.

    :)
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  • Emlyn
    Emlyn Posts: 4,525
    mhardy6647 wrote: »
    The whole sustained, controlled fusion thing is (I'd say) the last, great hope -- and it sure as heck ought to be achievable... but the clock's ticking...

    Maybe the space aliens will finally make their presence known and share the secrets of warp drive with us. Live long and prosper!

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  • txcoastal1
    txcoastal1 Posts: 13,300
    Cooling is one of the biggest issues
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    edited December 2022
    txcoastal1 wrote: »
    Cooling is one of the biggest issues

    Yes and no (EDIT: based on my limited but nonzero level of understanding).
    The energy released as heat is what you want. The plasma has to be contained, but it is so "hot" (in a thermodynamic sense) that if anything goes wrong (e.g., a break in the torus or whatever containing the fusion reaction) the fusion quenches basically instantaneously. It's not like a fission reactor, where really bad things happen if the cooling fails. :#
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  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,981
    txcoastal1 wrote: »
    Cooling is one of the biggest issues

    Cooling ?? Well...let me introduce them to my x-wife. :)
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  • la2vegas
    la2vegas Posts: 674
    edited December 2022
    tonyb wrote: »
    txcoastal1 wrote: »
    Cooling is one of the biggest issues

    Cooling ?? Well...let me introduce them to my x-wife. :)

    You sound like a woman scorned... :D
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