Another Fusion Breakthrough

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peakbagger

Minister of Fire
Jul 11, 2008
8,776
Northern NH

Laser ignition was always a dark horse. I wonder how long the billions will be spent build the other lead technolgies? Given the US's past practice they will probably inadvertently hand it off to another country to commercialize it.
 
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Laser ignition was always a dark horse. I wonder how long the billions will be spent build the other lead technolgies? Given the US's past practice they will probably inadvertently hand it off to another country to commercialize it.
Laser based fusion! That's how Ironman created a new element to replace the palladium in his arc reactor that was poisoning him!

I recently read about some tech that was developed in the US and then just given to China. Can't remember what it was. It might have been in one of your previous posts.
 
This is the announcement that there will be an announcement.

It seems to be an arms race in publicity, given the "5 seconds" UK hoopla last year.

I still think that a batch process is not ideal for fusion.
 
From NPR:
U.S. reaches a fusion power milestone. Will it be enough to save the planet?

For one thing, he says, the lasers require more than 300 megajoules worth of electricity to produce around 2 megajoules of ultraviolet laser light. In other words, even if the energy from the fusion reactions exceeds the energy from the lasers, it's still only around one percent of the total energy used.

Moreover, it would take many capsules exploding over and over to produce enough energy to feed the power grid. "You'd have to do this many, many times a second," McBride says. NIF can currently do around one laser "shot" a week.
 
This local interview on the topic with a UW research scientist is quite informative and optimistic.

 
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I find all of the articles about fusion energy fascinating to read and I think the basic research to learn how to attain sustainable fusion reactions on earth is well worth the cost for other spin-off applications unrelated to fusion energy. But does anybody truly, truly believe that in our lifetimes sustainable fusion reactions will be possible and cost-effective enough to generate electricity?

I can see that we solve all the technical hurdles to making it possible, but it will then probably be just too complicated to be reliable or cost effective.
 
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Is this the breakthrough that will make it happen??
 
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I think not. Getting magnets that work for the application is one hurdle, but engineering (dynamic) plasma confinement is much more than that.
And engineering the (materials in the) walls to be able to take up the energy deposited to allow its extraction while not degrading too quickly is another.

It's a necessary buy far from sufficient step imo.
 
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