Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

imperial.ac.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 494 posts

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

#441

Post by willis936 »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #37
seoaeu wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any context on who Dr. Hossenfelder is or why their "debunking" is meaningful?

She's a German physicist who has made a name for herself, I think, arguing that mathematical beauty should not be a factor when constructing solutions to problems in theoretical physics. I think construing her video as a "debunking" does it a disservice, for what it's worth. It's a call for journalists and laypeople to be cautious when interpreting lab results. She doesn't "dunk on" fusion power or say that it's not…

For a physicist she claims to know strikingly little about fusion energy research while still offering up opinions. Why did the good doctor fail to mention triple product? Why did the good doctor conflate ICF machines and MCF machines? Why did the good doctor imply that research progress is tied to Q (which is a metric that only progresses in times of large funding/when nuclear machines are being built)?

It seems the good doctor has smoke to blow, rather than truth to spread.

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

#442

Post by willis936 »

Krasnol wrote: post #123
vfclists wrote: post #19

Funny how this story gets posted after soon after Dr Sabine Hossenfelder's debunking and deflate the fusion power hype - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ4W1g-6JiY with a genuine Hans Gruber accent :)

It's even funnier how fast you got downvoted. The nuclear band wagon is strong here.

Perhaps people are sick of non-experts chiming in where they aren't wanted or needed for the explicit purpose of misinforming the public.

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

#443

Post by Iv »

tsimionescu wrote: post #110
Iv wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20 years ago we were joking about it being 40 year away. So yes, it is timely progress. I am still bitter that we don't invest more on this research which has the potential to solve the climate crisis "unexpectedly".

ICF really doesn't have this potential, definitely not in the way it is practiced here. Each shot at NIF costs a few million dollars in material costs alone, because of the precisely machined parts that are required to achieve inertial confinement of the plasma long enough to make it start fusion, which get destroyed in the process.

This was a 50 years project because huge installations need to be built in order to gain knowledge about different technologies and aspects of fusion. The goal of these experiments is to achieve fusion power plants. ITER is probably going to be the first large scale demonstration, though I would not rule out an unexpected innovative design to pass it at one point.

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

#444

Post by Iv »

nnamtr wrote: post #71
Iv wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20 years ago we were joking about it being 40 year away. So yes, it is timely progress. I am still bitter that we don't invest more on this research which has the potential to solve the climate crisis "unexpectedly".

I'm somehow afraid of a world in which huge amounts of energy can be wasted without having a bad conscience. Probably it would lead to some new problems.

Aren't you also excited of the new possibilities? I really believe that once we have left the energy crisis behind us we will witness a new golden age of civilization.

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

#445

Post by adrianN »

anfilt wrote: post #436
pasabagi wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absent from your analysis is the risk presented by global warming. Obviously, transitioning the energy sources for an entire group of nations is risky and absolutely the kind of thing you expect to be a bumpy ride. On the other hand, uncontrolled global warming is far more risky - at worst, the energy shortages present a limited economic challenge. Global warming presents an existential challenge at worst, and an unb…

They are other important uses hydrocarbons other than energy production. So calling them obsolete seems a bit of a stretch. For example take coal one of the dirtiest fossil fuels. Steel plants making carbon steel steel need to convert that coal into coke. Even an electric arc furnace needs coke to make carbon steel. Similar things with other hydro-carbons. So its not like we are gonna stop using them even if the grid…

You need a little bit of carbon to make carbon steel, but the vast majority of the coke is used for heat and producing a reducing atmosphere to reduce the ore. Both of those can also be done with a process using Hydrogen.

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

#446

Post by Krasnol »

willis936 wrote: post #442
Krasnol wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even funnier how fast you got downvoted. The nuclear band wagon is strong here.

Perhaps people are sick of non-experts chiming in where they aren't wanted or needed for the explicit purpose of misinforming the public.

And therefore opt-in to a Astro-Turf ran by people like Shellenberger and financed by a highly corrupt industry which sees their end coming? I mean...seriously...you could have at least watch the video above. It shows that even the involved scientists are lying to you but you didn't and instead you've went for this exchangeable phrase which could come out of a MAGA speech.

This is the nuclear band wagon in a nutshell.

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

#447

Post by willis936 »

Krasnol wrote: post #446
willis936 wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps people are sick of non-experts chiming in where they aren't wanted or needed for the explicit purpose of misinforming the public.

And therefore opt-in to a Astro-Turf ran by people like Shellenberger and financed by a highly corrupt industry which sees their end coming? I mean...seriously...you could have at least watch the video above. It shows that even the involved scientists are lying to you but you didn't and instead you've went for this exchangeable phrase which could come out of a MAGA speech. This is the nuclear band wagon in a nutshell…

Ah yes the experts are lying to the public, so sayeth... who again? Don't have the wool pulled over your eyes by someone who's just telling you what you want to hear.

Before claiming that I'm somehow clueless here, perhaps try a little engagement. Here is some material for you. I can get you an intro to fusion reading list afterwards if you're interested.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28781178

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28730707

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28730431

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28736859

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

#448

Post by not2b »

willis936 wrote: post #401
not2b wrote: post #100

We're still a very long way off. Sabine Hossenfelder has a good explanation of what's wrong with most reporting on progress toward fusion: http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-close-is-nuclea... edit: not sure why this was downvoted, it's directly relevant and the video and transcript discuss this experiment. It quotes Arthur Turrell: "This phenomenal breakthrough brings us tantalisingly close to a demonstrat…

>not sure why this was downvoted Perhaps because spreading the agenda-oriented opinion about fusion of someone who knows exactly as much about fusion as a high-schooler maybe isn't the best? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28781178

Wow. A respected PhD theoretical physicist knows exactly as much about fusion as a high schooler? See her Wikipedia page for her resume: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Hossenfelder

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

#449

Post by willis936 »

not2b wrote: post #448
willis936 wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>not sure why this was downvoted Perhaps because spreading the agenda-oriented opinion about fusion of someone who knows exactly as much about fusion as a high-schooler maybe isn't the best? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28781178

Wow. A respected PhD theoretical physicist knows exactly as much about fusion as a high schooler? See her Wikipedia page for her resume: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Hossenfelder

If she knows more then she knowingly deceived the public in her video to forward an agenda. Which explanation is worse to you?

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

#450

Post by bjowen »

Oh come on, this story again?

This is great news for physics PhDs and the NIF machine is cool as hell, but it’s research to keep the US’s doomsday devices up to date. This does very little to stave off the other doomsday threat before us and nothing to justify the breathless reportage that it’s getting.

Post reply on HN