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

Is it possible? Obviously, yes.
Is it attainable? Yes, I think so.
When will it happen? Probably not in my lifetime.

But, if and when it does, we will have unlimited power. Especially if we can get a network of hydrogen barges running between here and Jupiter, which is basically a large ball of mostly hydrogen.
 
As always - there's still no "free lunch"... Gotta build the reactors (Where? Materials and cost? Env. Impact?), gotta setup and maintain fuel supplies (space sourced will be expensive but...given time?), reactors will wear out over time and need to be replaced/upgraded etc. etc...
 
StarCruiser said:
As always - there's still no "free lunch"... Gotta build the reactors (Where? Materials and cost? Env. Impact?), gotta setup and maintain fuel supplies (space sourced will be expensive but...given time?), reactors will wear out over time and need to be replaced/upgraded etc. etc...
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You're right, but these are the same problems we have with every current type of power generation.
 
Yes - and that's why I brought it up. Got to keep some perspective. Fusion will DEFINITELY be a great thing to achieve but, it's not a magic bullet that will fix absolutely everything.

We have to keep in mind that it's just a better tool in our tool box and it will come with it's own unique cost/benefit vs. what we have available now.
 
Serveaux said:
Okay, just nine years to go...
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That old quip isn't working as well, anymore.
Breakeven has happened. Actual progress has been made.
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/14
I suspect if the world hadn't put most of its eggs in the ITER basket there might be even more progress right now, but things are happening on many different fronts. It's no longer in the "What if" category, but the "how to commercialize it" stage.
Speaking of which: Helion is starting to assemble the Polaris reactor this month. It's the prototype for their commercial powerplant.
 
We'd need to put in some SERIOUS failsafes. And situate the plants out in the middle of nowhere, just in case the magnetic containment goes offline.

When fission goes out of control, you get a meltdown. Fusion, and you get effectively a zero-radiation H bomb. Upside is, there's no mess, since the whole plant is probably vaporized.
 
That would also point to widespread incompetence, powergrids should have a large degree of redundancy, of course nothing is fully failproof. :crazy:

Spain and Portugal are a bit in a pickle concerning that to make an example, The Netherlands has 8 international sources from where it can get power if for some reasons the whole national energy production would fail, there's only one cable connecting Portugal to France and the same goes for Spain so there's no way these two could take over and deliver enough power.
Powergrids are complicated and fragile.. :biggrin:
 
Oddish said:
We'd need to put in some SERIOUS failsafes. And situate the plants out in the middle of nowhere, just in case the magnetic containment goes offline.

When fission goes out of control, you get a meltdown. Fusion, and you get effectively a zero-radiation H bomb. Upside is, there's no mess, since the whole plant is probably vaporized.
Click to expand...

you increase fuel intake slightly to shutdown a fusion reaction. there is no runaway fusion reaction. You need a fission bomb to make an H-bomb. What you're describing is a pure fusion weapon, and as far as anyone knows, no one has figured out how to make one. It might be easier to make an antimatter-matter weapon.
 
Santaman said:
Nothing even remotely dramatic will happen if you lose contaiment:
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Indeed.
Santaman said:
if they become a reality fusion reactors will probably be the most boring reactor types ever.
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Apart from secondary radiation from the low-level contamination due to neutron activation. There are ways to mitigate that, however.

I remember people theorising ways of making a thermonuclear device that didn't require a fission stage back in the 70s. If anything came of it, I doubt we'd be told. It went quiet in the 80s - because it was impractical or perhaps not?
 
Oddish said:
We'd need to put in some SERIOUS failsafes. And situate the plants out in the middle of nowhere, just in case the magnetic containment goes offline.

When fission goes out of control, you get a meltdown. Fusion, and you get effectively a zero-radiation H bomb. Upside is, there's no mess, since the whole plant is probably vaporized.
Click to expand...
Yeah......as those already on here have pointed out.....that's not how fusion works.

Its not self sustaining so fizzles out pretty lamely.
 
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