Optimistic Fusion Article

[peakbagger]

The Holy Grail Of Clean Energy Is Closer Than Ever | OilPrice.com

Touted as the holy grail of clean energy, nuclear fusion is now closer than it’s ever been thanks to a new development 40 years in the making

oilprice.com

The new Australian method sounds like a major breakthrough. Just wonder if fusion makes it into the world market early enough to help carbon reduction goals

 

[begreen]

Could be interesting. If it works there's going to be a fire sale on magnets in France.

Radical hydrogen-boron reactor leapfrogs current nuclear fusion tech

"We are sidestepping all of the scientific challenges that have held fusion energy back for more than half a century," says the director of an Australian company that claims its hydrogen-boron fusion technology is already working a billion times better than expected.

newatlas.com

 

[peakbagger]

Somewhat like SpaceX versus NASA I dont see these huge government attempts commercializing fusion ending up successful. They seem to have a major component of making work and spreading government money around. My guess is if it happens its probably going to be a relative outsider. Lockheed Martin has been very quiet on their concept but when they do report they claim to be on on or ahead of their development schedule. There are a couple of other approaches being chased by small groups.

The current government sponsored technology may need to be scaled up into multi gigawatt scale plants costing billions if they ever prove feasible. One talk I went to long ago was envisioning one or two plants for all of New England. All of the concepts I have seen are thermal concepts and the Carnot cycle rears it head. In order to generate actual electric power they will need massive heat sinks that most likely will be big enough to impact local/regional weather patterns and possibly require a lot of water. Moving the power around from a central plant will require a significant increase in major transmission infrastructure and lots of line loss. Given the current potential for deploying distributed renewables and the big potential for off shore wind all tied with battery technology and load shifting, it may get to the point where its better to just go with renewables now then wait for the holy grail of fusion. Fusion on the other hand may help with energy intensive industries like aluminum and steel production.

 

[SpaceBus]

Somewhat like SpaceX versus NASA I dont see these huge government attempts commercializing fusion ending up successful. They seem to have a major component of making work and spreading government money around. My guess is if it happens its probably going to be a relative outsider. Lockheed Martin has been very quiet on their concept but when they do report they claim to be on on or ahead of their development schedule. There are a couple of other approaches being chased by small groups.

The current government sponsored technology may need to be scaled up into multi gigawatt scale plants costing billions if they ever prove feasible. One talk I went to long ago was envisioning one or two plants for all of New England. All of the concepts I have seen are thermal concepts and the Carnot cycle rears it head. In order to generate actual electric power they will need massive heat sinks that most likely will be big enough to impact local/regional weather patterns and possibly require a lot of water. Moving the power around from a central plant will require a significant increase in major transmission infrastructure and lots of line loss. Given the current potential for deploying distributed renewables and the big potential for off shore wind all tied with battery technology and load shifting, it may get to the point where its better to just go with renewables now then wait for the holy grail of fusion. Fusion on the other hand may help with energy intensive industries like aluminum and steel production.

I saw firsthand what a "regular" nuclear plant can do to the weather in NC. Any rain passing over the cooling lake/reservoir would become more intense, and I lived to the east and got all of the heavy rains and winds.