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Carbon-free fusion power could be ‘on the grid in 15 years’

There was a blurb about boron recently
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-hydrogen-boron-fusion-magnetically-confined-plasma.html

BTW Borazon is very hard like diamond but with a higher melting point….perhaps as a liner?

Help with plasma calculations
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-complex-plasma.html

The challenge of predicting "complexity" from "simplicity" is a common issue in various sciences and technologies that deal with complex structures and dynamics. In the future, we will apply the modeling methods developed in this research to the study of complex flows, not limited to fusion plasmas.

Just in:
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-discovery-compact-fusion-power.html

A magnetic cage keeps the more than 100 million degree Celsius hot plasmas in nuclear fusion devices at a distance from the vessel wall so that they do not melt. Now researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) have found a way to significantly reduce this distance. This could make it possible to build smaller and cheaper fusion reactors for energy production. The work was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

On Microwaves
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-cooking-plasmas-microwaves.html
"Initially, we did not expect these phenomena in Heliotron J but were surprised to find that plasmas were forming without cyclotron resonance," group leader Kazunobu Nagasaki explains.

Blueprint
https://phys.org/news/2023-06-mathematical-blueprint-fusion-device.html
https://firstlightfusion.com/ ?

Protective layers
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-elucidating-mechanism-layers-fusion-reactors.amp
 
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CorporalCaptain said:
A
From the article.

The companies did not disclose financial or timing details of the power purchase agreement, or which Microsoft facilities would get fusion-generated electricity.​

At least until we know more, it's still just all hype.
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It hasn't been hype for some time. Helion is selling Helium isotopes. They've been fusing off the previous prototype for awhile. The current building finishing construction is the production prototype. The funny thing is they may not even be first to commercial production since CFS seems to be racing ahead of them, in Massachusetts. What is irksom is that even as the technology has improved greatly in the last two decades, there are certain people that think fusion reactions require the burden of proof of the Loch Ness Monster.
 
FwQpXkEXoAMcdKo

Tokamak Hall under construction in Mass. They're still aiming for a start date of 2025 and net-gain shortly after it goes online. They have a theoretical Q>10. Their compact Tokamak will have higher gain than ITER.
 
New alloy available to contain fusion
https://phys.org/news/2023-06-team-spectral-analysis-x-ray-crystal.html
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-team-alloy-boost-fusion-energy.html

"The selected compositions of this material system exhibit the best irradiation resistance among all alloys tested at similar conditions and setups," said Enrique Martinez, a materials scientist with Clemson University. "Those results align with our modeling, which greatly minimized the set of experiments necessary to assess the material's performance."

But something else caught my attention recently:
https://phys.org/news/2023-06-tempest-teacup-physicists-breakthrough-turbulence.html

A group of University of Chicago scientists, however, have pioneered a way to create contained turbulence in a tank of water. They use a ring of jets to blow loops until an isolated "ball" of turbulence forms and lingers.

"It was a surprise to us," said physicist Takumi Matsuzawa, the first author on a study describing the findings, published in Nature Physics. "It'd be like calmly sitting in a field with a picnic and watching a storm raging 50 feet away," said Prof. William Irvine, the corresponding author on the study."

I can't help but wonder if this could explain ball lightning---and also be useful for fusion somehow. Perhaps something besides magnetics could be the key...a Romulan plasma torpedo indeed.

One day…
https://www.space.com/when-will-we-achieve-fusion-power
 
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My current biggest worry over fusion power is that when the defining breakthrough is finally made (power out marginally greater than power in --> problem solved except for further refinements), governments and power conglomerates will try to either squash it, monopolize it, or both.

Energy is the foundation of civilization. He who controls it, controls us. Working fusion power means limitless energy, which means drastic reduction in control over populations. Some people will be willing to burn the world down to avoid that and hold power over others.
 
Jedi Marso said:
My current biggest worry over fusion power is that when the defining breakthrough is finally made (power out marginally greater than power in --> problem solved except for further refinements), governments and power conglomerates will try to either squash it, monopolize it, or both.

Energy is the foundation of civilization. He who controls it, controls us. Working fusion power means limitless energy, which means drastic reduction in control over populations. Some people will be willing to burn the world down to avoid that and hold power over others.
Click to expand...
I could see that worry except there are multiple paths to the same conclusion. It would not be possible to stop every method so it is useless to try, past a certain point. I don't think anyone was/is actively trying to stop fusion development, apart from the fact there's only a limited about of VC money and everyone wants the money.
 
XCV330 said:
I could see that worry except there are multiple paths to the same conclusion. It would not be possible to stop every method so it is useless to try, past a certain point. I don't think anyone was/is actively trying to stop fusion development, apart from the fact there's only a limited about of VC money and everyone wants the money.
Click to expand...

I really hope so. I see fusion power as the next big paradigm shift in human civilization- big like the industrial revolution. Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe. Some of its isotopes less so, but there is virtually an inexhaustible supply. If we don't get in our own way (I'm looking at you, governments!), fusion power is the foundation of a true post-scarcity society on -and off- Earth.
 
The recent announcement of room and higher temperature superconductors would be an even bigger paradigm shift, if confirmed.
 
Asbo Zaprudder said:
The recent announcement of room and higher temperature superconductors would be an even bigger paradigm shift, if confirmed.
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the LK-99 thing is interesting. should be pretty easily falsifiable if there's nothing to it. i think we've all just been burned on expectations over the decades
 
The claimed critical transition temperature is 400 K (127°C), which is phenomenally high - potentially making it widely applicable for use - and this is at standard atmospheric pressure (101.325 kPa) to boot. The substance is pretty easy to synthesise as well as it's just lead apatite (a phosphate compound of lead) with about 25% of the lead ions replaced by copper ones. If the data has been falsified, we should know pretty soon. It'd be a silly way to throw away a career to hoax this - but then cold fusion came to naught...
 
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ETA: Update from Sabine Hossenfelder:
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Eric Lerner lays out his case and his view of the current race. LPP has really done a lot on a shoestring budget.
 
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