Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
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Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#2Excellent news, we need this so badly, especially now in Europe with Germany shutting down its nuclear (fission) plants and NS2 being cancelled. It's astonishing to me that the world isn't pulling out all the stops on fusion development, something like the space race or Manhattan project.
Unfortunately, last I heard ITER building has halted: http://news.newenergytimes.net/2022/02/21/french-regulator-h...
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#3Skeptical. This video by Sabine clearly explains why a lot of these fusion research claims are dubious with a focus on ITER and JET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4W1g-6JiY
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#4Excellent news, we need this so badly, especially now in Europe with Germany shutting down its nuclear (fission) plants and NS2 being cancelled. It's astonishing to me that the world isn't pulling out all the stops on fusion development, something like the space race or Manhattan project. Unfortunately, last I heard ITER building has halted: http://news.newenergytimes.net/2022/02/21/french-regulator-h...
Even if fusion succeeds in net positive energy (which is still a ways off - even ITER, planned to finish in 2030, will not actually generate energy, they didn't even add a turbine to try), there are huge hurdles to scanning it up.
It's impossible for fusion to be a significant source of energy in the time left to avert catastrophic global warming. Even with the most optimistic estimates, we will at best have a handful of small plants, nothing comparable to a fission power plant.
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#5Excellent news, we need this so badly, especially now in Europe with Germany shutting down its nuclear (fission) plants and NS2 being cancelled. It's astonishing to me that the world isn't pulling out all the stops on fusion development, something like the space race or Manhattan project. Unfortunately, last I heard ITER building has halted: http://news.newenergytimes.net/2022/02/21/french-regulator-h...
Fusion will not solve any energy problems we have today, and is unconnected to them.
Fusion will have to, maybe, compete with solar/wind/storage in 20-30 years, and beat the prices for that 20-30 years from now. With solar+storage being cheaper than many fossil fuels today, fusion is going to have to be extremely cheap to be able to be a competitive terrestrial energy source with 20-30 years more of solar and storage improvements.
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#6previously https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30271677
1128 points | 792 comments
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#7Skeptical. This video by Sabine clearly explains why a lot of these fusion research claims are dubious with a focus on ITER and JET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4W1g-6JiY
Agreed. She really did a great job explaining how the progress of fusion research is regularly miscommunicated to the public as more significant or quickly applicable than it actually is.
Fusion in general seems like a false hope for any of our near term energy problems.
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#8Note, the power output was about 1/3 the power needed to sustain the reaction.
> JET’s latest experiment sustained a Q of 0.33 for 5 seconds, says Rimini. JET is a scaled-down version of ITER, at one-tenth of the volume — a bathtub compared to a swimming pool, says Proll. It loses heat more easily than ITER, so it was never expected to hit breakeven. If engineers applied the same conditions and physics approach to ITER as to JET, she says, it would probably reach its goal of a Q of 10, producing ten times the energy put in.
This seems odd to me, nobody has reached a Q of 1 yet, and she's claiming to be able to reach 10? That's great if it's true, but it seems a little fishy...
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#9Skeptical. This video by Sabine clearly explains why a lot of these fusion research claims are dubious with a focus on ITER and JET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4W1g-6JiY
Moreover she communicates that to achieve the desired goal, Qtotal is the one that must exceed 1, and that is harder to achieve. That is, total electrical energy generated to exceed total energy to run the system. You have losses down the road, particularly when converting heat to electricity.
It doesn't take away from research that is being done/must be done, but rather how far we are today from the results.
Re: Nuclear-fusion reactor doubles record for energy made from fusing atoms
#10Excellent news, we need this so badly, especially now in Europe with Germany shutting down its nuclear (fission) plants and NS2 being cancelled. It's astonishing to me that the world isn't pulling out all the stops on fusion development, something like the space race or Manhattan project. Unfortunately, last I heard ITER building has halted: http://news.newenergytimes.net/2022/02/21/french-regulator-h...
I would think about more practical ways to reduce cost fuel consumption. We are still 10-15 years away from practical fusion. We have been, for the last 50 years.
As for Germany, maybe it would make more sense not to hastily shut down nuclear reactors, in favor of coal and gas, or at least until the equivalent capacity of renewable energy is online, if they really cared about the environment?