If we do almost certainly its first use will be for some horrific things for the people of this planet. Such is the nature of the sick ones in charge.
What horrific things a power plant can be used for?
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Will we ever get fusion power?
81–90 of 309 posts
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#82SimCity predicted 2050
I'm also very excited for Arcologies. Well, not the dark one with a Morlock-like race wandering its labyrinthine tunnels. The bright ones with lots of greenery. Or maybe I just want more Singapore.
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#83Would love to see comments that actually respond to the article! Everyone here seems to be sharing their general opinions on fusion or a reaction to the article title. The article is actually very detailed!
It's detailed, but dated. Most of the graphs stop between 2000 and 2005. Yet the article is from 2024. Somebody took the easy way out and copied and pasted old graphs, probably.
Whatever happened to Lockheed's compact fusion program?[1]
[1] https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/compact-fusion...
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#84There's a better way to get power or heat from hydrogen that is 200 times better than burning it: https://brilliantlightpower.com/shareholder-meeting-presenta...
Brilliant Light Power is nonsense. They've been promising amazing products for nearly 10 years now. Here's a Wayback Machine capture of their home page from 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20151122183613/https://brilliant... BrilliantLight has developed a commercially competitive, nonpolluting source of energy from water. A SunCell™ catalytically converts H2O-based solid fuel directly into brilliant light which is…
There have been a well documented series of engineering solutions to problems in the implementation that have taken time to solve. Melting electrodes due to too much power - solved by molten stream electrodes C 2016. Melting holes in the reaction chamber eventually resolved after many different things tried by quartz that is transparent to UV. Etc. Demonstrations are offered to qualified parties.
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Strong Wind doesn't exist on asteroids and many planets, so I think there will be a long term need. Solar power decreases with the cube root of distance from the sun,so twice the distance is 1/8th the flux
Nitpick: Radiation decreases with the square of the distance (twice the distance, 1/4 the energy). This is because the surface of a sphere (which is where energy is collected) is 2D, not 3D.
I stand corrected
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brilliant Light Power is nonsense. They've been promising amazing products for nearly 10 years now. Here's a Wayback Machine capture of their home page from 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20151122183613/https://brilliant... BrilliantLight has developed a commercially competitive, nonpolluting source of energy from water. A SunCell™ catalytically converts H2O-based solid fuel directly into brilliant light which is…
There have been a well documented series of engineering solutions to problems in the implementation that have taken time to solve. Melting electrodes due to too much power - solved by molten stream electrodes C 2016. Melting holes in the reaction chamber eventually resolved after many different things tried by quartz that is transparent to UV. Etc. Demonstrations are offered to qualified parties.
They're not rewriting physics. Whatever's going on over there, it's fake.
Though the main suncell page mostly just claims to be a solar concentrator? Like, okay, you can do that, but carefully aimed mirrors don't really save you any money over the same surface area of solar cells. Or twice the area of solar cells, looking at the efficiency claim on that page.
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#87I hope not. If we find a way to convert water into bitcoins cheaply, we will rapidly boil the oceans. This will be worse than global warming. The biosphere can re-evolve after a CO2 and temperature spike, but all known forms of life require water.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. You are absolutely right that we likely would end up boiling ourselves, and articles like those below have been discussed here on HN several times:
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/04/economist-meets-physicist...
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#88If we do almost certainly its first use will be for some horrific things for the people of this planet. Such is the nature of the sick ones in charge.
What horrific things a power plant can be used for?
Powering TVs so people can get even dumber. But we seem to be fine doing this with existing power plants :)
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say it’s clear that solar panels are absolutely working extremely well today, at least as long as you don’t live too close to the poles. Renewables all together is growing faster than nuclear ever did. And solar is now a huge part of that. We have models where solar or solar+wind is providing all the power to everything from small remote weather stations through houses to large islands. Some small countries a…
> all the power to everything from small remote weather stations through houses to large islands Not without very large capacity gas/etc. plants available on standby (unless you’re fine with will below 99% availability)
The nice thing about power plants on stand-by is that they emit almost no pollution.
(And yeah, batteries will probably never be enough for any place out of the tropics.)
Re: Will we ever get fusion power?
#90Would love to see comments that actually respond to the article! Everyone here seems to be sharing their general opinions on fusion or a reaction to the article title. The article is actually very detailed!
Agreed, I think it is a great article. Personally, I'm most inclined to agree with the "bear case" summarized at the bottom of the article: 1. I think it's highly likely that, at some point (and probably in the not-too distant future with ITER and DEMO), humans will produce fusion reactors that are self-sustaining with net positive output (ignition). 2. Given the inherent complexity and difficulty with fusion, I thin…
Personally, I don't see fusion as relevant on a time scale that will impact the climate crisis in any significant way, but it could be a major asset in taking us from net zero emissions to preindustrial carbon levels. It could also simply just be a way to achieve cheap and abundant energy in general, irrespective of climate issues.
But as you said, of course it's an open question whether fusion will actually be more economical at scale. It could conceivably turn out to be a day late and a dollar short on Earth, and more relevant elsewhere.
I'm keeping my eye on Helion (the one Sam Altman invested in). Seems they're making some pretty big claims, and have already entered into contracts to deliver to customers by 2030 or face financial penalties. Could still be vaporware, but they seem to think they have something.