'Breakthrough in nuclear fusion'

[somapop]

Caught this in the background on the news earlier but only got round to digging it out.
It's a headline grabber for sure and a deeper dive suggests anything approaching clean, efficient, near limitless energy is some way off but interesting discussion all the same.

Perhaps with the utter downbeat nature of the news at the moment this has stood out as a light beacon (powered of course by nuclear fusions....).

I suspect I'll be keeping my heating off this winter....

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...clear-fusion-could-mean-near-limitless-energy

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...re-been-a-breakthrough-and-what-will-it-mean/

 

[SWP's back]

A long way off right now for sure but without this step, the next step can’t happen.

 

[stonerblue]

This 'news' seems to come around regularly. My understanding is they have already managed to create fusion but only for nanosecond.

 

[City Hobgoblin]

Encouraging step forward. The question is can the process be scaled up and made viable before it's too late.

 

[somapop]

I find all this absolutely fucking fascinating though.
I went down an 'Atom' rabbit hole a few weeks back, just to try and full understand the elemental make up of atoms in general. How they're built, the shells of electrons that build up the different atomic structures.

When you 'look' at things at the Planck scale it's just extraordinary (the line that if you blew an atom up to the size if the observable universe something at the Plack scale would be around the size of a tree....)

They're as empty as Cruella Braverman's soul yet the whole universe is entirely constructed of them.

And this entire universe popped out from a sub atomic seed (with the same energy contained in that dot as the universe contains today). I'm calling magic.

Then I get cynical and think if this energy solution is cracked it will still be heavily monetised....nothing is ever free is it?

 

[Gremlin]

Very different fusion technology to the JET/ITER designs being pursued this side of the pond and possibly harder to make into a working power station design than them. Small steps - there used to be a saying in the industry: 'fusion is 50 years away from commercial production, and always will be....'.

 

[somapop]

Very different fusion technology to the JET/ITER designs being pursued this side of the pond and possibly harder to make into a working power station design than them. Small steps - there used to be a saying in the industry: 'fusion is 50 years away from commercial production, and always will be....'.

I hope they're not still not saying that! :(

 

[west didsblue]

Upscaling a science experiment into a cost effective commercial power plant is no small task. There is no hint that this will happen any time soon, certainly not in the timescales that would help the planet significantly reduce its carbon emissions, so whilst the news is interesting to scientists and engineers such as myself, it will have no bearing on everyday life.

It’s good to know that this work is being done because in the very long term mankind could well depend on it.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

This ‘revelation’ is almost identical to one from 2014.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

This ‘revelation’ is almost identical to one from 2014.

Need to get more funding in for the project presumably. :)