SKorean fusion reactor takes step forward: scientists

AFP ^ | Jul 15, 2008 | Unknown

[decimon]

SEOUL (AFP) - Scientists at a South Korean experimental fusion reactor said Tuesday they had made a significant step forward in global efforts to produce clean and unlimited energy.

The KSTAR reactor generated a sustained super-hot plasma field during a demonstration in the central city of Daejeon, the ministry of education, science and technology said.

[TheWasteLand]

Very cool. Fusion is the holy grail of energy technologies.

[decimon]

Very cool. Fusion is the holy grail of energy technologies.

Cool fusion - that's the ticket. :-)

[TheWasteLand]

Cool fusion - that's the ticket. :-)

Cool fusion's been done, and ended up highly uncool ;-)

[east1234]

I hear you can do that in a beaker.

[decimon]

I hear you can do that in a beaker.

If you're a mug.

[CalifChris]

This kind of stuff is above my head (grin!) but it sounds fantastic. Did I read correctly that this cost all of 8 billin? We blew that out of the end of a gun last week in Iraq (if only we would spend that much on guarding the border).

[decimon]

Did I read correctly that this cost all of 8 billin?

Eight billion by 2015. Amazingly, that no longer sounds like much.

[CalifChris]

billin = billion (too much coffee again to slow down and reread...)

When single aircraft cost over a billion (can’t imagine my father flying that), 8 for one reactor capable of “super hot plasma” sounds like a deal.

[decimon]

billin = billion

I figured that was a typo or you were offering a colloquialism.

[Telepathic Intruder]

$8 billion for one of these, and the net output is 450 megawatts. That's about half a million homes (or one if it's Al Gore). So that's about $3,200 per home every year if they want to break even after 5 years, say (or a lot more for Al Gore, but he can afford it). Hopefully the cost will come down after the initial research; or with things going the way they are, they could be built in China and we could export our energy from them. Just kidding, hopefully.

[decimon]

I love the smell of plasma in the morning but I wouldn’t be that guy standing at the bottom.

Good pic. Thanks.

[Telepathic Intruder]

www.iter.org also has some interesting info, along with other related sites. For instance, the tritium-deuturium reaction that it uses is less efficient but easier to produce than a deuturium-deuturium one. Tritium must be manufactured and is slightly radioactive, but since the reaction releases free neutrons, it can make its own tritium out of lithium using neutron absorpsion. I just thought it was interesting.

[decimon]

That is interesting. But if tritium and deuterium fuse to form helium, does everyone on this project talk funny?

[Telepathic Intruder]

I suppose talking funny would’t be the worst side-effect of a containment leak. Actually, it’s too bad it doesn’t fuse into nitrous-oxide; they could open a dentist office next door.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon. I’ll believe it when I see the first generating plant going up. :’) I think this Korean project is just a dream of producing a dangling carrot to entice the illegal Pyongyang regime to drop its fission programs.

[RightWhale]

S Korea can run their own experiments while supporting ITER and do both. The USA could develop their own fusion reactor while supporting ITER and do neither.

[RightWhale]

See how large that ITER is? It’s bigger than City Hall.

[PapaBear3625]

$8 billion for one of these, and the net output is 450 megawatts. That's about half a million homes (or one if it's Al Gore). So that's about $3,200 per home

the article said "KSTAR was built in September last year under a 309 billion won (306 million dollar) project"

[decimon]

I think this Korean project is just a dream of producing a dangling carrot to entice the illegal Pyongyang regime to drop its fission programs.

And for their part, what are the French dangling?