Fusion Energy Breakthrough!!!

[Synthaholic]

Huge news. Game-changer.

US scientists boost clean power hopes with fusion energy breakthrough​

Net energy gain indicates technology could provide an abundant zero-carbon alternative to fossil fuels

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here.
Subscribe to read | Financial Times

US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time, according to three people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment. Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but no group had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes — a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would help prove the process could provide a reliable, abundant alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy. The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said.

 

[Baron Von Murderpaws]

Isn't that supposed to be more dangerous than nuclear energy?

 

[JohnDB]

Fusion involving plasma is very problematic.
Too much heat! We are talking about heat so high that it doesn't just melt concrete but actually burns it and destroys it. There isn't a material that can contain a fusion reaction for a substantial amount of time...even with cooling materials being pumped through.

It's also a misnomer that fusion power is limitless....
It also requires a great deal of energy to create the reaction.

They have a LOT of hurdles to overcome.

 

[BackAgain]

Are they making this alleged breakthrough via cold fusion?

 

[JohnDB]

Are they making this alleged breakthrough via cold fusion?

No....it's a laser shot into hydrogen plasma....very hot process. Gonna burn anything and everything.

 

[BackAgain]

No....it's a laser shot into hydrogen plasma....very hot process. Gonna burn anything and everything.

If that’s the case, then I wonder why it’s considered a breakthrough. I’m not a scientist. Far from it. But I understand that fusion reactions predictably release more energy (4x more) than it takes to induce the fusion reaction itself.

 

[Manonthestreet]

It wont be allowed by our overlords as the poverty push kicks into high gear

 

[Likkmee]

Same guys came up with it.(ps-dont fuck with my bookmarks)

 

[JohnDB]

If that’s the case, then I wonder why it’s considered a breakthrough. I’m not a scientist. Far from it. But I understand that fusion reactions predictably release more energy (4x more) than it takes to induce the fusion reaction itself.

Because it is a sustainable reaction which is different from an explosion....meaning that if we had a vessel that could contain the heat....we could use it to make the energy.

 

[BackAgain]

Because it is a sustainable reaction which is different from an explosion....meaning that if we had a vessel that could contain the heat....we could use it to make the energy.

The gold standard of what appears to be desired is cold fusion. If this new breakthrough hasn’t gotten us closer to cold fusion, ok. But I’m still not sure how it constitutes a breakthrough.

 

[johngaltshrugged]

This technology will never be viable as long as China produces all our flux capacitors.

 

[Carl in Michigan]

Isn't that supposed to be more dangerous than nuclear energy?

It IS nuclear energy. The most powerful and safest form there can be.

We will achieve this, hopefully in my lifetime

 

[WorldWatcher]

The gold standard of what appears to be desired is cold fusion. If this new breakthrough hasn’t gotten us closer to cold fusion, ok. But I’m still not sure how it constitutes a breakthrough.

IIRC about a previous article I read about it, the amount of energy outputted is greater than the energy inputted to initiate the fusion reaction.

So if you input 100 united but get out 120 units, you would have 100 units to sustain the reaction and 20 units in excess that could be bled of for distribution. (That's a very simplified description).

As a result you need three things:

• More energy out then goes in.
• The ability to capture the excess energy for external use and to sustain the process.
• A containment system that can withstand the extremely high temperatures.
• The ability to scale it for use in an industrial environment out side the lab.

(OK, that 4 - shoot me. LOL)

The huge advantage to fusion if/when it becomes feasible is that it does not produce nuclear waste and there is no changes of a "nuclear meltdown" causing widespread distribution of nuclear materials.

WW

 

[sparky]

a milestone known as net energy gain

inertial confinement fusion

It wont be allowed by our overlords

cold fusion

More energy out then goes in.

well i'm cornfused....
I'm reminded one can't create or destroy energy, only change it
~S~

 

[JohnDB]

The huge advantage to fusion if/when it becomes feasible is that it does not produce nuclear waste and there is no changes of a "nuclear meltdown" causing widespread distribution of nuclear materials

That's not exactly completely true....it makes radioactive isotopes...just very very small amounts.
But it doesn't take much either. Lol

It's name is the clue....fusion....as in fusing hydrogen atoms together.

There is some radioactive materials for when we use nuclear fission in an implosion to start a fusion reaction...but that's for bombs. And the fission materials create that.
But fusion does create oddball isotopes of various elements.

 

[Grumblenuts]

Scoop?

Huge Scoop

Want "Clean Energy"?
Knock Knock, McFlies,.. the Sun (a "fusion reactor")
Right up there ^^^
Bombards the Earth with energy ↓↓↓
And causes winds to blow this way >>> and that <<<
Free!

 

[Carl in Michigan]

well i'm cornfused....
I'm reminded one can't create or destroy energy, only change it
~S~

No laws are violated in producing a sustained fusion reaction

 

[BackAgain]

IIRC about a previous article I read about it, the amount of energy outputted is greater than the energy inputted to initiate the fusion reaction.

So if you input 100 united but get out 120 units, you would have 100 units to sustain the reaction and 20 units in excess that could be bled of for distribution. (That's a very simplified description).

As a result you need three things:

• More energy out then goes in.
• The ability to capture the excess energy for external use and to sustain the process.
• A containment system that can withstand the extremely high temperatures.
• The ability to scale it for use in an industrial environment out side the lab.

(OK, that 4 - shoot me. LOL)

The huge advantage to fusion if/when it becomes feasible is that it does not produce nuclear waste and there is no changes of a "nuclear meltdown" causing widespread distribution of nuclear materials.

WW

Actually, as I grok it (keeping in mind that I’m no scientist) is that it does produce nuclear waste although far less than current nuclear reactors. But yeah. In the event of a system failure, there is no meltdown. Stop the input and within moments the output ceases.

 

[BackAgain]

well i'm cornfused....
I'm reminded one can't create or destroy energy, only change it
~S~

Fusion doesn’t create energy. It merely releases energy as a by-product of the fusion reaction.

 

[sparky]

Fusion doesn’t create energy. It merely releases energy as a by-product of the fusion reaction.

yeah but it's the 'releasing' more than got put into it that's got my knickers in a knot BA
~S~