The Energy Thread

[All-American]

Okay, after a bit more research, they're currently at five seconds, but still NOT getting more energy out than they put in.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022...-by-a-tokamak/

So yes, they need some more breakthroughs, but they expect to get them. Another issue is that deuterium is is fairly easy to acquire, but tritium isn't, and they need a bunch of that too.

I really hope that they can pull it of. Really.

As I understand it, there is a theoretical process whereby tritium can be bred as an off-product of the fusion reaction. That's another logistical wrinkle in and of itself, but another problem that is less a science problem than an engineering problem. Not to minimize the difficulties finding the answer, but there does seem to be an available answer.

[All-American]

Don't they need a few breakthroughs before this can happen? Or are they assuming they'll have it figured out in twenty more years.

I've followed progress on nuclear fusion and as far as I know, nobody has gotten more power out of a fusion reaction than they put into it for more than a fraction of a second. It would be cool if somebody has figured it out, but I don't think they have.

I think all of what you just said is accurate. We've not yet gotten more power out of a fusion reactor than put into it for more than a fraction of a second, we need a few breakthroughs, and they think the remaining logistical problems are of the nature that we can figure out in twenty years.

[Scott R Nelson]

Okay, after a bit more research, they're currently at five seconds, but still NOT getting more energy out than they put in.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022...-by-a-tokamak/

So yes, they need some more breakthroughs, but they expect to get them. Another issue is that deuterium is is fairly easy to acquire, but tritium isn't, and they need a bunch of that too.

I really hope that they can pull it of. Really.

[Scott R Nelson]

Announcement made for a nuclear fusion power plant to be built in the UK, to be operational by the early 2040s. If no one else beats it to the punch, and if successful, it will be the world's first operational nuclear fusion plant.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-...shire-63119465

Don't they need a few breakthroughs before this can happen? Or are they assuming they'll have it figured out in twenty more years.

I've followed progress on nuclear fusion and as far as I know, nobody has gotten more power out of a fusion reaction than they put into it for more than a fraction of a second. It would be cool if somebody has figured it out, but I don't think they have.

[All-American]

Announcement made for a nuclear fusion power plant to be built in the UK, to be operational by the early 2040s. If no one else beats it to the punch, and if successful, it will be the world's first operational nuclear fusion plant.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-...shire-63119465

[Jeff Lebowski]

If they start mining this stuff off the bottom of the ocean then what will China do with all its slave labor? Dumb environmentalists can see past the end of their noses.

There are thousands of square miles of this stuff. It is 2.5 miles down, but it sounds like they have solved the engineering issues. Just need to scale it up.

[Uncle Ted]

Very interesting episode of The Daily podcast today on the potential for mining lithium, nickel, cobalt etc from the bottom of the ocean in the eastern pacific. Massive quantities of these metals lying in potato-sized nodules on the bottom. Companies are ramping up to mine them, but some blowback already. Would be critical to facilitate the move from fossil fuels to electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles are going to require metals far beyond what we have needed in the past, which will requiring mining. Will environmentalists be able to see the big picture and support mining? Time will tell.

If they start mining this stuff off the bottom of the ocean then what will China do with all its slave labor? Dumb environmentalists can see past the end of their noses.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Very interesting episode of The Daily podcast today on the potential for mining lithium, nickel, cobalt etc from the bottom of the ocean in the eastern pacific. Massive quantities of these metals lying in potato-sized nodules on the bottom. Companies are ramping up to mine them, but some blowback already. Would be critical to facilitate the move from fossil fuels to electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles are going to require metals far beyond what we have needed in the past, which will requiring mining. Will environmentalists be able to see the big picture and support mining? Time will tell.

[Uncle Ted]

Maybe the golden eagle should be extinct for being dumb... #DarwinismAtWork

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[All-American]

Meh. Fusion is always 15 years away.

As long as we can burn coal, anyway.

[Uncle Ted]

Yeah I don't know how people could have thought we were that close years ago, but the progress they're making is promising. Maybe in the next 50 years?

I remember SimCity allowed you to start building fusion reactors in 2050... So my money is on 2050.

[Bo Diddley]

Meh. Fusion is always 15 years away.

Yeah I don't know how people could have thought we were that close years ago, but the progress they're making is promising. Maybe in the next 50 years?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Nuclear fusion team finally publishes some papers... A year later with more than 1000 authors:


https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-fus...fornia-1733238


https://www.llnl.gov/news/three-peer...acility-record

Omar Hurricane... what an awesome name.

Meh. Fusion is always 15 years away.

[Uncle Ted]

Nuclear fusion team finally publishes some papers... A year later with more than 1000 authors:

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Confirmed: California Team Achieved Ignition

A major breakthrough in nuclear fusion has been confirmed a year after it was achieved at a laboratory in California.

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL's) National Ignition Facility (NIF) recorded the first case of ignition on August 8, 2021, the results of which have now been published in three peer-reviewed papers.

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the Sun and other stars: heavy hydrogen atoms collide with enough force that they fuse together to form a helium atom, releasing large amounts of energy as a by-product. Once the hydrogen plasma "ignites", the fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining, with the fusions themselves producing enough power to maintain the temperature without external heating.

Ignition during a fusion reaction essentially means that the reaction itself produced enough energy to be self-sustaining, which would be necessary in the use of fusion to generate electricity.
[...]

https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-fus...fornia-1733238

Three peer-reviewed papers highlight scientific results of National Ignition Facility record yield shot

After decades of inertial confinement fusion research, a yield of more than 1.3 megajoules (MJ) was achieved at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) National Ignition Facility (NIF) for the first time on Aug. 8, 2021, putting researchers at the threshold of fusion gain and achieving scientific ignition.

On the one-year anniversary of this historic achievement, the scientific results of this record experiment have been published in three peer-reviewed papers: one in Physical Review Letters and two in Physical Review E (See papers one and two). More than 1,000 authors are included in the Physical Review Letters paper to recognize and acknowledge the many individuals who have worked over many decades to enable this significant advance.

“The record shot was a major scientific advance in fusion research, which establishes that fusion ignition in the lab is possible at NIF,” said Omar Hurricane, chief scientist for LLNL’s inertial confinement fusion program. “Achieving the conditions needed for ignition has been a long-standing goal for all inertial confinement fusion research and opens access to a new experimental regime where alpha-particle self-heating outstrips all the cooling mechanisms in the fusion plasma.”
[...]

https://www.llnl.gov/news/three-peer...acility-record

Omar Hurricane... what an awesome name.

[Uncle Ted]

Let the rolling blackouts begin...

IMG_03AEB4EB783B-1.jpeg



ERCOT wants me to stop charging my electric car. No way am I walking in this heat!


Speaking of electric cars.