The Future is Fusion

[konradv]

Huh. Fusion. In maybe 30-50 years we'll have the ability to get an industrial prototype online. And then it will probably be protested and shut down as too dangerous by the econazis.

So this is a solution now, how?

30-50 years? That's why research needs to be increased to shorten that time. As for being protested, that's just your political bias talking because, as anyone familiar with the process knows, you get very little radioactive waste and a decrease in CO2 emissions. What's to protest?!?!

 

[Ozmar]

Fusion energy is limitless and waste free. But more to the point, when it becomes commercially viable not only will it solve nearly all of earth’s energy problems, it will also combat CO2 emissions and make redundant the wave energy, solar panel and windpower installations that currently pollute the landscape and will do so for years to come. However, geo-thermal energy will be useful.

Excerpt from: The future is fusion - On Line Opinion - 7/9/2010

If I push two pieces of metal hard enough, will they eventually fuse together and produce energy? Yay!

The amount of energy it takes for atomic fusion is doubtful worth its weight in returns.

 

[editec]

When we finally solve the problem of creating unlimited energy, expect the next pollution to be HEAT pollution.

There's no free lunch, folks

Not in economics and not in physics, either.

 

[Ozmar]

The problem of unlimited energy is you can't meter it.

 

[konradv]

Fusion energy is limitless and waste free. But more to the point, when it becomes commercially viable not only will it solve nearly all of earth’s energy problems, it will also combat CO2 emissions and make redundant the wave energy, solar panel and windpower installations that currently pollute the landscape and will do so for years to come. However, geo-thermal energy will be useful.

Excerpt from: The future is fusion - On Line Opinion - 7/9/2010

If I push two pieces of metal hard enough, will they eventually fuse together and produce energy? Yay!

The amount of energy it takes for atomic fusion is doubtful worth its weight in returns.

Once the ability to maintain a fusion reaction becomes reality, the energy released will be more than enough to keep the reaction going and provide plenty of energy for use. That's all been worked out theoretically. The problem is engineering.

 

[Big Fitz]

That's why research needs to be increased to shorten that time.

Why? no reason to. We don't have an energy crisis. we have a political crisis. those are hard to fix, but much more cost effective.

 

[KissMy]

we have a fusion generator, the sun, it is responsible for wind, waves and rain -- all the energy on the planet. there could be viability to fusion. i dont think it is as clear as abandoning all other sources before a proof of concept defies the math which dictates you cant make energy out of nothing.

I was watching the science channel show called Planets. They showed how winds on planets further from the Sun have much faster & steady winds of over 1000 mph. They theorize that turbulence generated by the Sun actually slow the winds down on the planets closer to the Sun.

 

[Charles_Main]

we have a fusion generator, the sun, it is responsible for wind, waves and rain -- all the energy on the planet. there could be viability to fusion. i dont think it is as clear as abandoning all other sources before a proof of concept defies the math which dictates you cant make energy out of nothing.

I was watching the science channel show called Planets. They showed how winds on planets further from the Sun have much faster & steady winds of over 1000 mph. They theorize that turbulence generated by the Sun actually slow the winds down on the planets closer to the Sun.

Wind is also effected by the speed of rotation of the planet.

 

[loosecannon]

we have a fusion generator, the sun, it is responsible for wind, waves and rain -- all the energy on the planet. there could be viability to fusion. i dont think it is as clear as abandoning all other sources before a proof of concept defies the math which dictates you cant make energy out of nothing.

I was watching the science channel show called Planets. They showed how winds on planets further from the Sun have much faster & steady winds of over 1000 mph. They theorize that turbulence generated by the Sun actually slow the winds down on the planets closer to the Sun.

turbulence or magnetic drag, solar wind etc?

 

[KissMy]

we have a fusion generator, the sun, it is responsible for wind, waves and rain -- all the energy on the planet. there could be viability to fusion. i dont think it is as clear as abandoning all other sources before a proof of concept defies the math which dictates you cant make energy out of nothing.

I was watching the science channel show called Planets. They showed how winds on planets further from the Sun have much faster & steady winds of over 1000 mph. They theorize that turbulence generated by the Sun actually slow the winds down on the planets closer to the Sun.

turbulence or magnetic drag, solar wind etc?

They said the uneven heating of the earth caused turbulence that slowed the winds.

 

[antagon]

we have a fusion generator, the sun, it is responsible for wind, waves and rain -- all the energy on the planet. there could be viability to fusion. i dont think it is as clear as abandoning all other sources before a proof of concept defies the math which dictates you cant make energy out of nothing.

I was watching the science channel show called Planets. They showed how winds on planets further from the Sun have much faster & steady winds of over 1000 mph. They theorize that turbulence generated by the Sun actually slow the winds down on the planets closer to the Sun.

i dont have a theory on that. heat reduces the density of gasses, creating low pressure, though. i've read that the sun cycle also speeds and slows the jet stream respective to high and low cycles. doldrums are due to the sun, too, though. not much wind there, but they are responsible for winds and storms in the upper latitudes. because of the liquid water on earth, i would argue that much of that energy is absorbed in oceans and affects precipitation. maybe outer planets dont have a feature like that.

 

[loosecannon]

I was watching the science channel show called Planets. They showed how winds on planets further from the Sun have much faster & steady winds of over 1000 mph. They theorize that turbulence generated by the Sun actually slow the winds down on the planets closer to the Sun.

turbulence or magnetic drag, solar wind etc?

They said the uneven heating of the earth caused turbulence that slowed the winds.

ordinarily uneven heating is what causes winds, at least on earth. Winds are driven by pressure differentials that are caused by uneven heating, on this planet.

 

[konradv]

That's why research needs to be increased to shorten that time.

Why? no reason to. We don't have an energy crisis. we have a political crisis. those are hard to fix, but much more cost effective.

What political crisis are you talking about? The wish of many to quit destroying the earth? If that's a crisis, bring it on. We don't have time to suffer the fools like you. You're not nerarly as clever as you think.

 

[onecut39]

Fusion energy is limitless and waste free. But more to the point, when it becomes commercially viable not only will it solve nearly all of earth’s energy problems, it will also combat CO2 emissions and make redundant the wave energy, solar panel and windpower installations that currently pollute the landscape and will do so for years to come. However, geo-thermal energy will be useful.

Excerpt from: The future is fusion - On Line Opinion - 7/9/2010

I do so enjoy it when people prove they know less about science than the average idiot. Nothing is limitless. Everything produces waste. What makes hydrogen fusion attractive is that helium is not something that most people consider a pollutant. What makes it dangerous is that we have to figure out a way to build a star and contain it.

Containment, that's the bitch. Presumable that will take power. Lots of it.

 

[Big Fitz]

That's why research needs to be increased to shorten that time.

Why? no reason to. We don't have an energy crisis. we have a political crisis. those are hard to fix, but much more cost effective.

What political crisis are you talking about? The wish of many to quit destroying the earth? If that's a crisis, bring it on. We don't have time to suffer the fools like you. You're not nerarly as clever as you think.

The political crisis is the rise of econazis attempting to usurp free peoples worldwide for a crisis that does not exist, using fraudulent 'science' as evidence to trick people into giving up their rights and freedoms.

The only fools I see are the ones who think this is a legitimate threat to life on Earth.

Name one solution to this threat that isn't based in government. I'd love to hear that. I doubt you can find a single one that doesn't have government empowering or forcing it. That is how you know that it is a delivery system for tyranny, and not real science.

 

[editec]

Fusion energy is limitless and waste free. But more to the point, when it becomes commercially viable not only will it solve nearly all of earth’s energy problems, it will also combat CO2 emissions and make redundant the wave energy, solar panel and windpower installations that currently pollute the landscape and will do so for years to come. However, geo-thermal energy will be useful.

Excerpt from: The future is fusion - On Line Opinion - 7/9/2010

I sincerely hope you're right about that.

Technology does have a tendency to be a kind of Pandora's box, though, doesn't it?

Just as every problem is a solution waiting to be discovered?

Every solution is a problem waiting for mankind to really get comfortable with their tecnological fix before its problem manifests.

One of the things that NOBODY ever talks about, but one that I think we need to at least begin thinking about, is this...

Assume that we find some clean, cheap unlimited energy source.

I think its safe to assume that mankind will use it, that mankind's populations will grow because of it, and that overall mankind will get richer and more active as a result of that.

With me so far?

Okay, now we're imagining a world where everyman has unlimited energy and and his technology is going full blast all the time.

What is the ULTIMATE POLLUTION that comes from using energy?

Heat, right?

The more energy we work with to do some useful task, the more energy we convert to unusable envronmental heat pollution.

Now imagine what this society would do facing that problem, when this society will be based on the concept that people are free to use all the cheap energy they want.

Now I understand that this really is not a problem NOW.

But it certainly would be a problem if we (numbering some unimaginable number of billions of us) have access to that unlimited non-polluting (except for heat pollution) energy source.

This kind of heat pollution ALREADY effects our megalopoli.

Now imagine that problem growing exponentially worldwide.

 

[Old Rocks]

We cannot even address, rationally, the affects of the fossil fuel that we are using. To ask us, the human race, to address the question of over population, with all that that means to religious and philisophical groups, is asking more than can reasonably be expected. They would rather we all die.

 

[mdn2000]

Too bad we dont have a president that would have the foresight to build a superconducting super collider we could use for research.

Seems like that would help develop fusion and fission technology.

 

[michael39]

We already have fusion power in the form of Solar. We'll get the price of Solar down to <$1 a watt LONG before a working fusion reactor can be built