Fusion News Ignites Optimism
nature.com
Fusion News Ignites Optimism
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Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#2I get the impression that the rate of progress is increasing in fusion energy research. Finally!
Or is it just various fusion startups making PR waves to get more investments?
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#3Can someone ELI5 to me how this design would be industrialised? How do you repeat this process day in day out?
Whenever there are articles written about inertial confinement, they always describe the current process (which I understand at a layperson level) but never how this design could be implemented in a repeatable manner?
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#4While I'm excited for this, I'm also cynical about the public reaction to fusion power as it gets closer to success and eventual general availability.
These past 2 years have highlighted to many how a combination of poor critical thinking and politicisation of so many aspects of our lives can lead to literal catastrophes.
Will the public see Fusion as the wonderful advancement for humanity that it will likely be, or will they see it as another dangerous nuclear thing? Will they see it as taking jobs from hard-working coal/oil workers? Will it be spun as the green energy sector not making their minds up and flip flopping between solar/wind/fusion/etc? Will there be stories about how we could accidentally create a black hole and destroy the world?
Hopefully I'm just being cynical, but I am worried about how the general public will perceive it, and/or how it will be sold by politicians and the less reputable parts of the media.
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#5Can someone ELI5 to me how this design would be industrialised? How do you repeat this process day in day out? Whenever there are articles written about inertial confinement, they always describe the current process (which I understand at a layperson level) but never how this design could be implemented in a repeatable manner?
More energy output than input such that output powers the input and so is a firehose of free money until energy no longer has monetary value.
The initial investment may be scary, but I think this is discounted per people's experience with Moore's law (whether right or wrong).
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#6Can someone ELI5 to me how this design would be industrialised? How do you repeat this process day in day out? Whenever there are articles written about inertial confinement, they always describe the current process (which I understand at a layperson level) but never how this design could be implemented in a repeatable manner?
More energy output than input such that output powers the input and so is a firehose of free money until energy no longer has monetary value. The initial investment may be scary, but I think this is discounted per people's experience with Moore's law (whether right or wrong).
I understand the first cycle of the process - my question is how do you repeat the cycle?
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#7While I'm excited for this, I'm also cynical about the public reaction to fusion power as it gets closer to success and eventual general availability. These past 2 years have highlighted to many how a combination of poor critical thinking and politicisation of so many aspects of our lives can lead to literal catastrophes. Will the public see Fusion as the wonderful advancement for humanity that it will likely be, or…
I don't think it will as it should be radically cheaper. It should come with an economic improvement.
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#8While I'm excited for this, I'm also cynical about the public reaction to fusion power as it gets closer to success and eventual general availability. These past 2 years have highlighted to many how a combination of poor critical thinking and politicisation of so many aspects of our lives can lead to literal catastrophes. Will the public see Fusion as the wonderful advancement for humanity that it will likely be, or…
Certainly we'll have all of the above.
> Will it be spun as the green energy sector not making their minds up and flip flopping between solar/wind/fusion/etc?
Well, the green energy sector is big. Solar companies push solar, wind folks push wind, and well, fusion folks are pushing for funding and VC money.
But the important thing is, we need all of them. Plus batteries (and battery-like systems).
And, yes, there will be spin doctors trying to discredit "green" because X, but that's what they do anyway, fusion or not.
> Will there be stories about how we could accidentally create a black hole and destroy the world?
Good idea, maybe :D But we'll sure hear a lot about how much irradiated/activated waste it will produce, and how it's not green at all, and so on.
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#9I don’t understand the appeal of this type of fusion (as opposed to the plasma reactor approach). We’ve known how to get positive energy out of fusion fuel since thermonuclear weapons in 1952. The really hard part would seem to be capturing that energy efficiently. This experiment is stuck at the ignition phase. When that’s positive energy they won’t be done, they’ll be able to start working on the practical problems of sustaining it. What am I missing.
Re: Fusion News Ignites Optimism
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
More energy output than input such that output powers the input and so is a firehose of free money until energy no longer has monetary value. The initial investment may be scary, but I think this is discounted per people's experience with Moore's law (whether right or wrong).
I understand the first cycle of the process - my question is how do you repeat the cycle?
I'm trying to ELI5 here, so, "keep dropping heavy-water pellets and pulsing laser beams."