Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab

OJFord wrote: post #3

Previously passim: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... (Edit: along with other, I now realise different, news from MIT.) (Including my submission of this same link, not discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28219462 , but the others are the same news.) Discussed mostly in: ~~ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28462151 and:~~(edit, per above) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?i…

SPARC ≠ NIF

Re: Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab

#5

Post by Parnee » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

Fusion berries powering cell phones for weeks. I'll take two.

Re: Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab

#6

Post by akeck » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 3:10 PM UTC

tantony wrote: post #2

Is this "plasma breakeven" or overall break-even?

Probably just "plasma breakeven" Sabine talks about the issue.

[1] https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-close-is-nucle...

Re: Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab

#7

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 3:18 PM UTC

tantony wrote: post #2

Is this "plasma breakeven" or overall break-even?

From TFA:

"The pace of improvement in energy output has been rapid, suggesting we may soon reach more energy milestones, such as exceeding the energy input from the lasers used to kick-start the process."

Re: Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab

#8

Post by Cerium » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 3:20 PM UTC

tantony wrote: post #2

Is this "plasma breakeven" or overall break-even?

I think it is neither. Most nuclear fusion news is focused on magnetic confinement. This article is about reaching ignition on an inertial confinement system.

Re: Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab

#9

Post by amarant » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 3:27 PM UTC

I thought ignition had been achieved a long time ago. Is the article saying this is the first time for this particular lab to achieve ignition, or have I confused my fusion hype-terminology? I genuinely can't tell, as the article is written in Hype rather than English...

Re: Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab

#10

Post by option » Tue, Oct 12, 2021, 3:29 PM UTC

fusion sound fantastic in principle. But in the meantime we can and should addressed most of our energy needs with fission.