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Fusion power on the grid within 15 years?
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moomin Send message Joined: 21 Oct 17 Posts: 6204 Credit: 38,420 RAC: 0 |
NIF has a different approach to the problem then ITER. Many hurdles and not any really breakthroughs just like ITER . http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/giant-us-fusion-laser-might-never-achieve-goal-report-concludes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_snOFH2K7A |
Gordon Lowe Send message Joined: 5 Nov 00 Posts: 12094 Credit: 6,317,865 RAC: 0 |
https://thebulletin.org/iter-showcase-drawbacks-fusion-energy11512 The mind is a weird and mysterious place |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
The Divertor Tokamak Test Facility shall be built at Frascati,Italy, by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, with an investment of 500 millions euro financed by the European Community. It should provide a test of the machinery designed for both ITER and DEMO experimental fusion reactors. ITER is a proof of concept experiment not producing any electricity. DEMO should be its successor and the first fusion reactor capable of producing electricity. ITER is under construction in France and should produce its first plasma in 2025. DEMO is still a project. Tullio |
moomin Send message Joined: 21 Oct 17 Posts: 6204 Credit: 38,420 RAC: 0 |
While waiting for fusion power that obviously will take many years to accomplish any results. Perhaps it's time to revive the Thorium-based nuclear power project. Nuclear physicist Alvin Weinberg was a proponent of that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_M._Weinberg He lost his job because at that time the main cause to use Uranium-based nuclear power was to produce Plutonium that could be used for nukes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power |
Julie Send message Joined: 28 Oct 09 Posts: 34060 Credit: 18,883,157 RAC: 18 |
They have been postponing nuclear fusion for years now, while we have all the right technology to realize it today IMHO. Wendelstein 7x, the Stellarator type, has the perfect technology to accomplish the breakeven energy point, the only drawback is that the device has not been built on the right height. I have been working out an idea of my own (I've sent a lettre to Yuri Milner about it) http://juliedetavernier.wixsite.com/rozz/single-post/2016/05/05/Some-thoughts-on-Nuclear-Fusion rOZZ Music Pictures |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
There must be an easier way of boiling water. Neutrons are not an electric current, you must use them to boil some water. Tullio |
Bob DeWoody Send message Joined: 9 May 10 Posts: 3387 Credit: 4,182,900 RAC: 10 |
They have been postponing nuclear fusion for years now, while we have all the right technology to realize it today IMHO. Wendelstein 7x, the Stellarator type, has the perfect technology to accomplish the breakeven energy point, the only drawback is that the device has not been built on the right height. I have been working out an idea of my own (I've sent a lettre to Yuri Milner about it) Ahhh, do I detect a conspiracy theory here? Bob DeWoody My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events. |
moomin Send message Joined: 21 Oct 17 Posts: 6204 Credit: 38,420 RAC: 0 |
Well one can't say there are lack of approaches to fusion energy. https://www.quora.com/I-just-read-about-ITER-a-project-to-build-a-fusion-reactor-that-generates-more-energy-than-it-consumes-10x-What-is-the-current-state-of-nuclear-fusion-research Then how to make a nuclear fusion power plant create electricity. https://www.quora.com/How-will-a-nuclear-fusion-power-plant-create-electricity Here are 5 proposed paths to generate energy from fusion. |
Gary Charpentier Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 31002 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32 |
There must be an easier way of boiling water. Neutrons are not an electric current, you must use them to boil some water. That is the problem in a nutshell. |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
I've worked with neutrons in my youth. They are bad beasts, they can destroy any metal in a matter of hours. Tullio |
William Rothamel Send message Joined: 25 Oct 06 Posts: 3756 Credit: 1,999,735 RAC: 4 |
Fusion will be the energy source of the future. It will always be thus. For now, content yourself to the expensive use of photo electric panels to convert the fusion taking place on the sun directly to electricity . I suspect this will always be cheaper than trying to bring fusion here on Earth to our power plants. Conversely, you could try focusing the Sun's rays to boil water to turn an electric generator's turbine blades. Better leave this method to the power (actually energy) companies to fund and build. |
Cheng Fan Soon Send message Joined: 3 Oct 05 Posts: 76 Credit: 4,581,394 RAC: 15 |
We already have a natural fusion reactor ---> The Sun. All we need to do are to built more solar power plants, either photovoltaics or solar thermal plants to convert the heat and photons energy to electricity. Total cost of all the space programme so far > 200 billion. If you invest 200 billion into fusion reactor research, starting 60 years ago, by now we might already have success construct many fusion reactor plants to produce electricity. |
Julie Send message Joined: 28 Oct 09 Posts: 34060 Credit: 18,883,157 RAC: 18 |
They have been postponing nuclear fusion for years now, while we have all the right technology to realize it today IMHO. Wendelstein 7x, the Stellarator type, has the perfect technology to accomplish the breakeven energy point, the only drawback is that the device has not been built on the right height. I have been working out an idea of my own (I've sent a lettre to Yuri Milner about it) Information, well looked up, and verified for some, straight from the heart I'd call it. The adaption of the plasma to our current infrastructure could possibly be proven by some 'Illuminati' :D rOZZ Music Pictures |
Bob DeWoody Send message Joined: 9 May 10 Posts: 3387 Credit: 4,182,900 RAC: 10 |
Breaking even isn't good enough for a commercial fusion power plant. Bob DeWoody My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events. |
William Rothamel Send message Joined: 25 Oct 06 Posts: 3756 Credit: 1,999,735 RAC: 4 |
What is silly about all this is: We apparently don't have the will or the expertise to build more conventional nuclear power plants yet we salivate over an impossibly difficult variation using fusion. We will, however, becry the burning of fossil fuels and mandate all-electric cars without a thought in the world of how we are to provide the electrical energy for them. If we can't master fast breeder's and Plutonium based reactors we aren't likely to be moving to fusion in many lifetimes. |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
Fast breeders are a folly, once Emilio Segre' told me . He managed to produce plutonium for the atomic bomb, but regretted the bombing of Nagasaki. It was not necessary, he told me, Japan was already surrendering after Hiroshima. Tullio |
Julie Send message Joined: 28 Oct 09 Posts: 34060 Credit: 18,883,157 RAC: 18 |
What is silly about all this is: We apparently don't have the will or the expertise to build more conventional nuclear power plants yet we salivate over an impossibly difficult variation using fusion. We will, however, becry the burning of fossil fuels and mandate all-electric cars without a thought in the world of how we are to provide the electrical energy for them. The problem with human beings is they don't have trust in anything. The consortium promised us nuclear fusion by 2020. I just read an article they postponed it until 2035 (??) Same with the JWST, they keep on postponing the launch.. If Stephen Hawking would read all of this right now, he would turn around in his grave.. rOZZ Music Pictures |
musicplayer Send message Joined: 17 May 10 Posts: 2442 Credit: 926,046 RAC: 0 |
Or for that of some ideas, or maybe a couple of ideas, perhaps not only that of Hilbert curves either, for such things as at least diagrams, if not any symbols either, for that of swastika, in perhaps rather making it more clouds. Nuclear fusion, like also perhaps antimatter as well, could be science without borders, except for no such things as lines in the sand either. The concept of a two-ring system, for that a big such one, next orbiting the Earth, and perhaps some 200 meters across, looks to me could be an even better shape, or fashion, if designed, or coming with some three rings instead, because you could need one ring for practical issues, one ring for science and technology, and perhaps one ring for that of propulsion, if not only a main module in the middle. But only the fact that we could be creators ourselves, by building both houses and roads, makes us also the ant as well, for that of similar techniques, except for still not any conscious mind, for both travel and whereabouts, when next going into space, for that of a longer journey. Because it will always be that of using the shovel, for that of unfinished work, when you also could be looking ahead, for perhaps a place somewhere else, which you wish to go at, for next also visiting. So, if perhaps losing out at times, for that of a small failure, perhaps no such thing for that of science either, because you know that there could exist such a thing, and next also out there, for its presence only, and therefore sometimes taking it for granted as well. Also that of such, for at least seeing the International Space Station being completed, and next also finished, in that perhaps the shuttle is not needed anymore. Rather that it now becomes a self-sustained environment, only from the supplies which could be carried there in other ways, and next perhaps still not any ring either. Perhaps such a dream of being a traveler in space, could end up you once again sitting down with the pencil, if not any pen and paper, and next draw your ideas. Except for perhaps sometimes only guessing, at least we know that space could be a place for that of living, except for still not in any Heavens either. Arthur C. Clarke was perhaps a visionary of sorts, for what he could be doing, but at best, still perhaps a conceptual visualization only, when next making it a platform for further, or subsequent space travel. The flat solar panels still takes up much space, and most likely you could still run only from one end to another, except for perhaps not in a circle either. |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
Experimental fusion reactors like Stellarator in Garching, Germany, Joint European Torus in Culham, England, and ITER in Cadarache, France, are like the Pyramids They have no utility whatsoever, produce no electricity and consume a lot of it. But they give people a purpose to live and do research which may or may not produce something useful. Now the JET, being financed by the European Community, risks a lot from Brexit. ITER may lose the American support ad financing too. In a sense they are like CERN and the LHC which produces some knowledge on elementary particles and has no connection with nuclear physics, despite the name of CERN (Centre of European Nuclear Research). But it is better to spend money on them instead of new military aircraft like the American F35 and its European counterparts. Tullio Hooray! I just received a polo shirt from CERN with thanks for my ten years contribution! |
Julie Send message Joined: 28 Oct 09 Posts: 34060 Credit: 18,883,157 RAC: 18 |
IMHO inertial confinement fusion is to only possible way to reach the breakeven energy point, needed for nuclear fusion. If the Stellarator from Wendelstein 7x would be built at a depth of -45km, we would receive nature's aid in accomplishing NF, knowing that pressure and temperature are directly proportional to each other and also knowing that Wendelstein 7x is encountering problems with exactly these two forces of nature. rOZZ Music Pictures |
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