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For example, there's this plasma-producing microwave + cut grape trick, what if you use something like this to supply really hot deuterium plasma?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
REBCO high-temperature superconductors have potentially changed the game. They can support stronger fields which means smaller devices for same confinement. Commercial production seems to only started in the last decade. MIT's research, spun out as CFS, may be prompting other startups.
Is there any fundamental limit we’re hitting on magnetic fields or might we see another 10-100x increase in field strength in the future?
I believe that there might be a way to have a compact and efficient fusion reactor which we just don't know yet (and a time traveller would be able to "hold my beer" us into it) For example, there's this plasma-producing microwave + cut grape trick, what if you use something like this to supply really hot deuterium plasma?
I wonder how this compares to the amount of money invested in crypto startups in the past few years. (I don't mean the value of crypto or the amount of money that was traded into it -- just the amount VCs invested into crypto startups.) I don't know if that means people that allocate capital think crypto has a better chance of changing the world than nuclear fusion -- or if it's something else. But it is strange to c…
Crypto up front costs are dirt cheap as most of it is open source software, and in a bull mania the rates of returns are astronomical.
Nuclear is a mature industry with R&D for fusion that has some of the largest up front capital costs on the planet for cutting edge materials, controls, land, and safety requirements. To top that off, the rates of returns are abysmal and take forever even compared to coal plants.
I don't believe the hype. From what I can see fusion still isn't anywhere near being a viable source of energy, other than in the form or solar power.
Side comment: fusion can be seen as a solution to many of our worst problems. But another way to see it is that without a complete change in what societies value and how they act (i.e. a cultural/philosophical/storytelling change), fusion is just going to increase the rate at which we are transforming this planet into a giant pile of garbage, whether its solid and liquid garbage (leading to wiping out 60% of wildlife in 50 years, spilling the phosphorus of our soils into the sea -making them sterile and killing life in the sea- etc etc), or gas garbage (typically greenhouse gases).
We do that by extracting resources nature concentrated for us for free for millions of years and dispersing them all around in our buildings, phones, playstations, fertilizers, fuel etc.
As long as Black Friday is the highlight of the year, there are reasons to think fusion might be more dangerous than helpful.
It’s good to have an increasing ability to transform matter, as long as you are using that ability in the right direction.
This is great news. That said, what the literal fuck -- we've previously been investing 1/850,000th of global GDP in one of 4-5 truly promising energy technologies while the world burns before our eyes?
The article doesn't seem to mention why exactly but I'm guessing it's some combination of 1) visible climate change (extreme heat, wildfires, drought, etc.) so people want better energy sources and 2) the mayhem Russia started seeing as it is one of the bigger energy providers. Or has there been anything else?
Actual advances in fusion and related energy generation tech. For example, at least one startup, Helion, is developing a way to generate electricity directly from the fusion reaction and magnetic field, instead of indirectly by heating water into steam that then turns a turbine generator. The increased efficiency from that might enable it produce net electricity. And quite frankly, it's way past time that we advanced…
This is great news. That said, what the literal fuck -- we've previously been investing 1/850,000th of global GDP in one of 4-5 truly promising energy technologies while the world burns before our eyes?
Exactly. The past of fusion has been grim, but the future looks (probably) bright. https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/your-book-review-the-f...
In the meantime, all of the experimental devices (JET, AUG, EAST, DIII-D, etc.,) have been gathering evidence on how to operate ITER when it is turned on, and not necessarily focused on achieving breakeven.