Fusion Tech Breakthrough

[ElmerJFudd]

"Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said. Although many scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore. Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years."

 

https://www.ft.com/content/4b6f0fab-66ef-4e33-adec-cfc345589dc7

[RABid]

It does, however, create radiation. The big hurdle is the vast amount of energy required to fuse atoms together. Jupiter is huge and the gravimetric pressure heats the core to 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But the mass of Jupiter would have to increase by about 85 times before fission would begin converting hydrogen to helium. It is going to take some amazing technology for man to manufacture this process. Atomic power is based on splitting large atoms. A very different process than forcing atoms together into a new atom. I'm not saying impossible, but it is not something that you trigger and it keeps going. The only fusion we know is inside of suns. They achieve fusion through vast amounts of continuous gravity. It is really interesting how it works, and how much of a balance is required. Stars sit in a balance of gravity trying to compress the star into a black hole, and fusion trying to explode the star into a super nova.

[RABid]

4 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

https://www.ft.com/content/4b6f0fab-66ef-4e33-adec-cfc345589dc7

By the way, the article is behind a pay wall.

[ElmerJFudd]

33 minutes ago, RABid said:

By the way, the article is behind a pay wall.

Strange.  I was able to read it without a subscription.  
 

The story has been picked up by other news outlets and tomorrow will likely have more info with the announcement and statements.  
 

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-announce-scientific-breakthrough-fusion-energy-sources-2022-12-12/

 

[RABid]

That one worked, thanks. The first link wanted me to either subscribe for a monthly fee of $69 per month after a trial period, or pay $1 to read the article.

 

It is going to be interesting to see how they prepose to get past the need of either extreme heat or extreme pressure to cause fusion.

[Anderton]

On 12/12/2022 at 8:54 PM, RABid said:

It is going to be interesting to see how they prepose to get past the need of either extreme heat or extreme pressure to cause fusion.

 

If they can simply harness the heat generated by angry social media discussions, the problem will be solved shortly.

[ElmerJFudd]

“Scientists at Lawrence Livermore in the San Francisco Bay Area achieved their breakthrough by training 192 lasers at a target roughly the size of a peppercorn, heating it to more than 3 million degrees Celsius (more than 5.4 million degrees Fahrenheit) and — briefly — mimicking the conditions of a star. Fusion began.

 

‘This had all happened before. One hundred times before,’ said Marvin Adams, the nuclear security agency’s deputy administrator for defense programs. ‘But last week, for the first time, they designed this experiment so that the fusion fuel stayed hot enough, dense enough and round enough for long enough that it ignited and produced more energy than the lasers had deposited.’

 

That net energy gain was ‘about two megajoules in, about three megajoules out,’ Adams said.“

 

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2022-12-13/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-seen-as-milestone-toward-clean-energy-future?_amp=true

 

 

 

[David Emm]

Hm, a man-made star of 36,000 degrees, hovering inside a magnetic bottle. What could possibly go wrong? 😬

 

Jon Stewart once said "The world ends, the last words Man utters, are somewhere in a lab.
A guy goes 'Huh-huh, it worked!'"

 

I've been a fan of pebble-bed reactors for a long time. One major plus: far less chance of a kaboom. The next time I become a PhD in nuclear physics, I'll try to explain it in simpler terms. Don't hold your breath. The issues with scalability elude me. 😳  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble-bed_reactor

[Joe Muscara]

I'm hoping for the best. The prognostications are that a usable form of this is many years off, probably not even in our (those here) lifetimes, but who knows. Technically, I think society is getting more intelligent every day and advances can come quickly, quicker than we expect. I'm not holding my breath to see this workable in a couple of years, but it could come sooner than we think.

 

That being said, the math on this is a little funky. While the direct power in from the lasers was less than the power out from the reaction, the power in to the lasers (which aren't very efficient) was much greater. So one question might be, "will starting these reactions require excess energy, like a battery in a (gasoline ICE) car, but once you get it going you're good?" Or will there be little fusion reactors all aglow around that we're carrying around with tongs to plug in and power stuff?  I hope I get to see what happens because I'm curious if this changes the paradigms we have about power a lot.

[Anderton]

I'm getting intrigued by the batteryless electric cars that run on salt water or wastewater. Seems like that's where the future really lies for personal transportation.

[David Emm]

Wastewater? How "Back To The Future!"

If you can pee into it, I predict a rise in apps for figuring out the necessary beer or Mt. Dew-to-pee ratio for a trip of any given length.

 

So far, flying cars can be had, for exorbitant prices, but only as Sharper Image oddities. The support structure is going to need a LOT of work for EVs to spread beyond limited areas. How fast that will happen is still hazy. I'd like to think a better battery will appear by the time the supported secondary regions begin to lead to broader acceptance. Being as old as the nearer forms of dirt, I'm not sweating having to adapt to that sea change. Through meditation, I've also accepted that I won't be here for Marvel Phase 7.

[analogika]

On 12/19/2022 at 6:41 PM, Anderton said:

I'm getting intrigued by the batteryless electric cars that run on salt water or wastewater. Seems like that's where the future really lies for personal transportation.

I was briefly intrigued until I saw that it was a nanoFlowCell press blurb.
 

I was wondering when they would launch another round of moneyraising. The last time they pushed this exact tech with a different prototype and a different name was in 2019. 

 

The founder of this company, Nunzio La Vecchia, is a self-professed "autodidactic physicist" who bought a Dr. title, has been convicted of real estate fraud, though he successfully appealed — the court following the lawyers' argumentation that the fraud was SO obvious that it had to have been obvious to the victims. I’m not kidding. 
 

The last time I read any of this crap in detail, the technical description of the principle directly contradicted known science on flow cells. 
 

Their sole achievement so far is a single working prototype about eight years ago that cannot possibly have been built around the described technology, because it does not exist, being impossible as described. Since then, it’s been viral articles every few years. 
 

The last round was in 2019, and back then, he was drumming up funding for a large piece of real estate (all bells ringing yet?) to build a futuristic super factory. 
 

I haven’t checked what his current financing goal is, but I’m pretty sure he never built that factory.

[Anderton]

Thanks for the insights!

 

So you're saying one should not believe everything they read on the internet?!? I'm shocked!

 

But there really is a Santa Claus, right? Right?!?!

[KuruPrionz]

Just now, Anderton said:

Thanks for the insights!

 

So you're saying one should not believe everything they read on the internet?!? I'm shocked!

 

But there really is a Santa Claus, right? Right?!?!

Yes, there is a Santa Claus. He invited the Easter Bunny over for dinner and then he cooked and ate the poor innocent rabbit. Don't know if he ate any of the Easter Bunny's eggs (or how a rabbit lays eggs for that matter). Both Hansel and Gretel have declared Santa Claus to be evil on their website so now it's a fact. 😇

[David Emm]

I think I've worn out my welcome with Santa. The hash brownies of 1981 were a hit, but we've gone downhill since then. 🎄💥

[ElmerJFudd]