Congrats Doc Ok.
US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
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Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#52Every breakthroughs starts from government (people) funded initiatives, congrats to everyone involved, a future without the need to generate selfish profit is at reach!
Some breakthroughs.
Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#53Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#54I tried to do some back-of-the-envelope calculations on what this means in regards to energy costs being saved, because I couldn't find a direct source (maybe GPT could help actually). Anyway, based on ITER [1] to equate the energy production of a 1000MW coal plant you would need 2.7t of coal for that plant or 250kg of deuterium and tritium for the fusion reactor (split equally). Based on [2] deuetrium costs about ~$…
> tritium is ridiculously expensive, at $30k per gram
D-T fusion almost always breeds tritium in the blanket.
Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#55Am I reading it correctly that they achieved a ~53% output of energy over input?
>>:Am I reading it correctly that they achieved a ~53% output of energy over input?
Let's add some words. The output energy is electromagnetic radiation and heat. When they do make a conversion to usable energy (electricity) there will be conversion losses.
On the input side, they are measuring laser energy. The lasers are not very efficient so this overlooks a bunch of losses on the input side as well.
They are probably 100x away from real energy gain, and the facility isn't even designed to be used that way.
Never the less, it is a milestone along the way.
Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#56It's a big deal, it will change the way people live. Hopefully it also help to eliminate wars, the war for the natural resources and land.
Currently, there are a couple dozen authoritarian regimes, most heavily armed, that are almost entirely funded by fossil fuel exports. That makes me fear things will get worse before they get better.
True; however, this was already the direction things were headed for said regimes as much of the world has begun to focus on energy security. On the upside, perhaps the lowered long-term demand for fossil fuels will reduce the risk of additional resource discoveries leading to more despotic regimes.
Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#57I tried to do some back-of-the-envelope calculations on what this means in regards to energy costs being saved, because I couldn't find a direct source (maybe GPT could help actually). Anyway, based on ITER [1] to equate the energy production of a 1000MW coal plant you would need 2.7t of coal for that plant or 250kg of deuterium and tritium for the fusion reactor (split equally). Based on [2] deuetrium costs about ~$…
I'd imagine commodity tritium breeders would be a part of the infrastructure build out and that it will be a highly competitive space as fusion-to-the-home nears reality.
Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#58I'm still a little unclear on the benefits that fusion offers compared to things like wind and solar. I understand that we need to develop better storage technologies for the energy produced by wind and solar, but that seems so much easier than the challenges currently facing fusion. Wind and solar just seem so far ahead of fusion already - they're pretty cheap and very widely deployed on a global scale. In compariso…
Wind and solar only provide power during wind / during the day. Fusion can provide 24/7 power.
Battery packs can only store so much energy, and Lithium is a contested resource as most of the Lithium produced is required by the automotive industry these days, and the largest deposits are in regions where you maybe don't want to get your Lithium from (child labor, unsafe conditions, politically unstable countries, etc.)
But yeah, future energy will be a mix of available technologies, not a single technology alone. So you need e.g. fusion (or fission) for "baseline" power and wind/solar for peaks
Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#59This was for a few seconds using radioactive "fuel" correct?
So perpetually 10-25 years away at all times?
Beware science packaged as press-releases.
Re: US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
#60> achieve President Biden’s goal
This seems unnecessarily partisan to mention