They always say this...its like when NASA says "Possible alien life found on Mars" and it turns out to be just a new kind of dust particle.
Can you give an example where NASA has actually said they found possible life?
Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
321–330 of 827 posts
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#322They always say this...its like when NASA says "Possible alien life found on Mars" and it turns out to be just a new kind of dust particle.
And then there's all those times where it was not in fact nothing but major scientific progress.
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, but if we can crack fusion energy, we can stop burning fossil fuels and we might even have ample energy to extract CO2 from the atmosphere.
Fusion produces a lot more radiation than fission, AIUI. What makes you think it will be any more politically viable to scale out than fission reactors?
There is no nuclear waste, what radiation are you measuring to come to this conclusion? neutrons that dissapear the moment the reactor switches off?
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#324They always say this...its like when NASA says "Possible alien life found on Mars" and it turns out to be just a new kind of dust particle.
In my experience, it's not the scientists (NASA or JET in this case) that utter such statements but journalists. NASA scientists will say something like "we've encountered something new, but we're not jumping to conclusions until we've investigated fully" and then you'll see some bloggers/journalists putting out clickbait titles like "Possible alien life discovered on Mars!"
In this case, the celebration seems well-reasoned. From the article:
"It's a landmark because they demonstrated stability of the plasma over five seconds. That doesn't sound very long, but on a nuclear timescale, it's a very, very long time indeed. And it's very easy then to go from five seconds to five minutes, or five hours, or even longer."
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#325They're still a very long way from getting a net gain in energy: https://youtu.be/LJ4W1g-6JiY
I think this explanation is more comprehensive:
https://youtu.be/JurplDfPi3U
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#326It's incredible how much innovation it's coming from EU recently instead of US.
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#327> This is more than double [the energy] what was achieved in similar tests back in 1997. I was excited for a little bit there.
I wonder, in the future when everyone's attention has been burned by turning up the volume on all headings to 11... will everyone ignore and miss a truly "major" breakthrough.
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#328They always say this...its like when NASA says "Possible alien life found on Mars" and it turns out to be just a new kind of dust particle.
It's more like when USA Today says "NASA possibly found alien life on Mars." The path from the workers' "Compound A-9512 is present in thygmolonogical quantities in martian topsoil" to the PR office's "We found really exciting organic compounds on mars" to mainstream news's "Possible alien life found on mars" is so predictable and happens the same way every single time. It's depressing.
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm happy to hear someone make this point. Rather than sneering "vaporware" when decades fail to crack a problem, I would prefer us to keep in mind that if we never try multi-generational projects, we will never taste the fruit of multi-generational projects, and those are some sweet fruit indeed.
It runs into the spaceship problem where later iterations of a spaceship reach the destination first because new technology allows them to fly faster. At some point (maybe) materials and other technology will develop enough so that fusion becomes feasible on a decades or so timeline. Or solar & battery technology will develop to the point where fusion isn't really needed.
It's an interesting sci-fi thought, but why wouldn't the second spaceship just catch up with the first one and pick up the passengers to avoid their unnecessary travel time?
Re: Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy
#330They always say this...its like when NASA says "Possible alien life found on Mars" and it turns out to be just a new kind of dust particle.
[deleted]