Nuclear Fusion ... Interested? ... This is it, this is the spot to explore ...

[FrantzM]

Hi

This is an interesting subject, one that I would like to see discussed calmly and rationally. I would hope that the threads doesn't quickly become a depository for things gleaned on the Internet that posters simply dump here without themselves reading it. I've seen such in other threads of importance (COVID-19) where the sheer number of "dumped" links makes the thread meaningless in a short time.

This out of the way.

I tend to be in favor of nuclear energy production. The sheer energy density is appealing. We need to produce more energy with fewer byproducts. Is Nuclear the solution? I don't think we are close to fusion but fission? Can we make it better? Shouldn't we pursue it?

 

[North_Sky]

We have experience with fission, some with not so happy results.
Fusion is the future ahead...uncharted territory. The pursuit is where it's happening, fusion with tremendous potential.

* Totally out of nuclear fusion, should we also keep pursuing solar stations and windmill farms...energies? But they'll never be able to power modern cities of the 21st century, unless it's very sunny and very windy.

 

[HemiRick]

Bill Gates has assembled a crew that has designed a new fission reactor that is 100% safe and runs off of spent fuel.....Was going to sell some of them to China before Trump interfered. Seems to be a great way to move foward w clean no CO2 energy.
Terrapower

 

[Frank Dernie]

The JET (Joint European Torus) experiment is near here. It is coming to the end of its project now - I looked round it in the early '80s during construction - and the numbers involved were incredible. To get the reaction started they had 2 vast flywheel generators and were located adjacent to a 4000 megawatt power station (now decommissioned since it was coal powered ) The plan was that the flywheels took ages to get up speed then stalled them both and took everything from the power station to generate the plasma.
I am no expert but the magnitude of all the numbers blew my mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_European_Torus

 

[monkeyboy]

Fusion - Energy of the future and it always will be...

 

[mhardy6647]

need to use one of those magic bottles

We should really try to get the boutique audio cable companies interested in fusion containment. You know they could manage it.

 

[mhardy6647]

My belief/understanding is that once the fusion conditions are achieved, it should be completely possible to fuse pairs of protium deuterium (EDIT: I am a moron! ) atoms' nuclei into (regular old) helium nuclei, with the concomitant mass deficit going to (heat) energy per E = m * c^2, Bob's your uncle. Not so much m, but c^2
is a pretty big number

Needless to say, though, I ain't no physicist.

("Dammit, Jim!")

 

[North_Sky]

Because we all love sci-fi flicks and Star Trek ...
▪ https://www.space.com/21201-star-trek-technology-explained-infographic.html

"Warp drive in Star Trek works by annihilating matter (in the form of deuterium, a kind of hydrogen gas) and antimatter in a fusion reaction mediated by dilithium crystals. This produces the enormous power required to warp space-time and drive the ship faster than light."

Check ... HOW IT WORKS:

 

[Colonel7]

⚛ https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a30705490/nuclear-fusion-iter-reactor-tokamak/

I subscribe to this subject and every day I receive new articles about this fantastic, tremendous powerful energy of the future. So I thought to myself why not explore with science people.
It encompasses a lot, and leads to comparisons with other energies (solar, wind, water, fuel, seaweed, waves, etc.). ...And the potential advantages and disadvantages, plus the necessary safety measures to prevent catastrophic accidents.

I know few members here connected to nuclear plants (work experience and some knowledge); they are most welcome to share their feedback and their vision towards nuclear fusion. And everyone else of course; it's an exploration, a discussion to expand our knowledge on this and in comparison with other sources of energy.

Me I think it's the real deal. I watched several documentaries on renewable energies and what's best for our environment, and in time I will share some of those docs.

First let's see the level of interest in a science audio forum...ASR from the gentle members.

Stay safe

These magazine articles get many things wrong. Forget 10x the energy, ITER's basic and most important metric is net electricity generated and we'll see. I will say Bernard Bigot has done an excellent job essentially rescuing the project.
But there are non-tokamak ideas as well and it's as likely that a private company will beat these giant international boondoggles if anything gets done. TAE is the most well-known.

If you like crazy complicated wow factors just check out stellerators like the 7x in Germany

 

[Berwhale]

Fusion may or may not happen in your lifetime

Controlled fusion (as opposed to the uncontrolled fusion in a hydrogen bomb) has already happened many times on Earth. The problem is getting more energy out than you put in.

 

[Berwhale]

Fusion can also be initiated by lasers... https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/how-nif-works

 

[Berwhale]

I visited Dungeness B as an Engineering undergraduate. To be honest, I was more impressed by the steam turbines than the reactor (I got to walk across the top of the turbines), there's really not much to see in the reactor room.

https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/power-stations/dungeness-b

 

[North_Sky]

Advantages:
⚛ https://www.iter.org/sci/Fusion

A short explanation ...

 

[North_Sky]

These magazine articles get many things wrong. Forget 10x the energy, ITER's basic and most important metric is net electricity generated and we'll see. I will say Bernard Bigot has done an excellent job essentially rescuing the project.
But there are non-tokamak ideas as well and it's as likely that a private company will beat these giant international boondoggles if anything gets done. TAE is the most well-known.

If you like crazy complicated wow factors just check out stellerators like the 7x in Germany

I agree, that's why we're here, to find the right ways of building our future.

Yes, I am learning more about Tokamak versus Stellarator.

 

[Count Arthur]

We already have energy from nuclear fusion, we just need some of these to collect it:

https://www.worldometers.info/

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Nuclear fusion has been just 10 years away since the 1950's. ....

the IAEA is less ambitious these days

“A prototype of a fusion reactor (DEMO) is expected to be built by 2040. Electricity generation and exploitation is also expected to take place in the second half of the century, depending on funding and technical advancement.”

https://www.iaea.org/topics/energy/fusion/faqs

 

[SIY]

 

[Doodski]

We already have energy from nuclear fusion, we just need some of these to collect it:

View attachment 61229

https://www.worldometers.info/

That's a big can of wurmz.

 

[North_Sky]

View attachment 61231

That big boy is for "warm" audio...low energy.

That's a big can of wurmz.
View attachment 61232

That's for going fishing, none to do with nuclear fusion.
_____

Our type of energies here ... with nuclear fusion being the main...our future on Earth.
Only for comparison of the top ten best ...

 

[North_Sky]

We already have energy from nuclear fusion, we just need some of these to collect it:

View attachment 61229

https://www.worldometers.info/

Nature vs man-made.

Also, important to point out; when nuclear fusion becomes reality (man-made) in a certain number of years in the future, we would also need "health fusion" (virus-free world) to optimize that energy efficiently in a sane, balanced, healthy humanity...all across the human souls (ethnicities and entities).