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USALiberal

(10,877 posts)
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 10:51 AM Jun 2022

The Dream of Nuclear Fusion Energy Is Within Reach


https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2022/06/28/the_dream_of_nuclear_fusion_energy_is_within_reach_839661.html

The Sun has fuelled life on Earth for billions of years, creating light and heat through nuclear fusion. Given that incredible power and longevity, it seems there can hardly be a better way to generate energy than by harnessing the same nuclear processes that occur in our own and other stars.

Nuclear fusion reactors aim to replicate this process by fusing hydrogen atoms to create helium, releasing energy in the form of heat. Sustaining this at scale has the potential to produce a safe, clean, almost inexhaustible power source.

The quest began decades ago, but could a long-running joke that nuclear fusion is always 30 years away soon start to look old?

Some hope so, following a major breakthrough during a nuclear-fusion experiment in late 2021. This came at the Joint European Torus (JET) research facility in Oxfordshire, UK, in a giant, doughnut-shaped machine called a tokamak.

Inside, superheated gases called plasmas are generated in which the fusion reactions take place, containing charged particles that are held in place by powerful magnetic fields. Such plasmas can reach temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius, an unfathomable 10 times hotter than the Sun’s core.

In a sustained five-second burst, researchers in the EUROfusion consortium released a record-breaking 59 megajoules (MJ) of fusion energy. This was almost triple the previous 21.7 MJ record set at the same facility in 1997, with the results touted as ‘the clearest demonstration in a quarter of a century of the potential for fusion energy to deliver safe and sustainable low-carbon energy’. Follow the link to learn more about the successful nuclear fusion experiment at JET.

More at link....
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Xoan

(25,294 posts)
2. Not ready for prime time ...
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:13 AM
Jun 2022
the clearest demonstration in a quarter of a century of the potential for fusion energy to deliver safe and sustainable low-carbon energy’.

MineralMan

(146,192 posts)
3. Promises, Promises?
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:25 AM
Jun 2022

People have been saying this for decades now. So far, though, no feasibility has been demonstrated. Five seconds does not demonstrate feasibility. Nope. Sorry.

Back to the research for another few decades, I guess.

hunter

(38,264 posts)
4. It's an ** I'll quit smoking tomorrow ** kind of dream...
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:30 AM
Jun 2022

... and every morning we wake up and light another cigarette.

We could have quit burning fossil fuels for electrical power generation twenty years ago, but we didn't.

There was always some bullshit dream of fusion, solar, wind energy, whatever...

Now we face the consequences.

Darwins_Retriever

(847 posts)
5. I was just reading an article about the current experiments
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:31 AM
Jun 2022

It said they were extremely promising, BUT...

There isn't enough Tritium to make fusion feasible for future use.

exboyfil

(17,857 posts)
6. Tritium can be "bred"
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:40 AM
Jun 2022

but that doesn't solve the other innumerable problems with fusion.

But it is only 20 years away. It will always be only 20 years away.

I strongly suspect that space based solar collectors will outpace any fusion developments. As far as a future energy source, it will be space based solar.

NNadir

(33,368 posts)
7. There are huge problems and unanswered questions, specifically...
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:44 AM
Jun 2022

...connected with issues in neutron spallation, heat transfer, fuel (tritium), and plasma stability.

Fusion energy is advancing, but far too slowly to have even a remote chance of addressing climate change.

I covered this recently over in the E&E forum, citing news items in Science .

Vogon_Glory

(9,086 posts)
8. I remember cheery fusion energy forecasts back in the seventies
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:55 AM
Jun 2022

One of the authors predicted that they’d have all the bugs worked out and that they’d have commercial fusion plants up and running this year.

That doesn’t seem to be the case.

Miguelito Loveless

(4,438 posts)
9. Everyday I generate an average of 45kWh using fusion
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 11:56 AM
Jun 2022

My solar array taps the neighborhood fusion reactor operating a mere 8 light minutes away.

It has been operating quietly, reliably, and cleanly for seven years now. I am told that the giant fusion reactor in the sky has another good few billion years in it.

For the massive amounts spent on Earth-based fusion research we could have built a LOT of sun and wind generation.

BSdetect

(8,989 posts)
10. Just in case we ever need to decommission a fusion reactor
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 12:12 PM
Jun 2022

let's include that cost when we estimate the real cost?

Unlike with all those early fission reactors.

mitch96

(13,821 posts)
11. "released a record-breaking 59 megajoules (MJ) of fusion energy" And how much energy was put in
Tue Jun 28, 2022, 01:53 PM
Jun 2022

to create that much energy going out?
m

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