Some (non-affiliated) press news from the UK-based (-Really? -Still? -What about Brexit, then?) "Joint European токамaк*" (2 min video):
Spin: "Record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained fusion" (-Ahem- for a "sustain" of 5 seconds, that is...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdWLAoEDiV0&t=1s
* тороидальная камера с аксиальным магнитным полем
How-To: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak#ITER
I use to work there many years ago, on the Culham site in the main workshop. I now work at ISIS at Rutherford Laboratory in a small engineering facility. I know ISIS is the name of the instrument https://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/home.aspx
The Home Engineer
Well, they do have to figure out how to contain the reaction for as long as needed, and then a bit! ;) I am pretty sure if I was getting a few megawatts of power out of mine and the containment failed, it would inconvenience my neighbors just a bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by DIYSwede
Well, considering they're all one-off prototypes, technically they're all DIY efforts. But I'm sure 3D printers and a handful of Arduinos will make all the difference for the garage efforts :lol:
Also, when I was in High School (lo these very nearly 50 years ago!) my junior year english term paper was on the imminent future of cheap, abundant fusiion energy produced in tokomac reactors that were going to get past the breakeven point any day then... :-)
And we were going to use the power generated to warm the Earth back up so the glaciers around Los Angeles would melt back...Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce.desertrat
Bill
Precisely how many Megajoules are required to meet this machine's break-even energy production? Admittedly, this is a nice step but they may still be miles away from commercial reality. Like others, I too wrote Science Papers on the technical advantages of Fusion Energy. Once even went to hear Dr. Edward Teller speak at my University about it.
A much better description of this, as well as more accurate info on the whole thing here: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022...-by-a-tokamak/
This is a testbed device for the larger ITER tokomak, and is designed for only short periods of sustained fusion.
We'll see in 2025, when ITER is put into service to see if real sustained and > break-even fusion can be done.
Hey, my grandkids are SURE to see functioning fusion power plants! Or maybe their grandkids...Quote:
Originally Posted by Duke_of_URL
And I really think we should be doing this experimentation off the planet.
I understand they are going to trial a new lining and also try to expand that 5 second envelope. As always heat rejection is the problem.
Does 'Cold Fusion' exist?
Not really. Fleichmann and Pons results were never repeatable by any other experimenters (or even themselves), although we know something was going on, because there were many folks who got some sort of odd results trying, and those results have shown up in previous literature as unexplained events, put down to neutron-based events (basically evidence of transmutation WAS seen, but not due to a nuclear fusion event, but to neutron capture events)Quote:
Originally Posted by NortonDommi
Not much has been done recently, but this is a decent overview of the field in 2016 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...its-something/
So no, we're not getting energy out of room temp electrochemical 'fusion', ever, because it wasn't 'fusion'.
We're an order of magnitude away from producing electricity. "Break even" refers to thermal break even. Heat into the reactor equals heat produced through fusion. If you take into account how much electricity the rest of the plant takes (all the superconducting magnets, heaters/lasers, etc.) plus the efficiency of the steam turbines and generators, the energy input is dramatically higher. 5x to 10x higher if you want to go from thermal break even to electrical break even. We are far, far away from fusion power.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duke_of_URL
Fusion also pukes out a ton of neutron radiation. This is bad. This causes neutron activation in materials, which makes them become radioactive. You get radiation embrittlement of the reactor lining which periodically need to be replaced. So much so that fusion power will cause more radioactive waste than fission power.
Fusion plants are far, far more expensive than fission plants, and we're not seeing any new fission plants being built. In fact, they're being mothballed.
I personally don't think we'll see fusion power in our lifetimes. Between the poor economics and the fact that they produce so much radioactive waste. Nope. Won't happen.