Posted on 07/14/2021 7:55:22 PM PDT by dynachrome
Hundreds of times every month, a British scientist sitting in a high-tech control room in an industrial park in the Thames Valley near Didcot clicks his computer mouse.
Each time he does so, a high-energy beam of subatomic particles is fired into a dark, swirling cloud of superheated hydrogen gas, known as a plasma, contained within a spherical steel tank about 6 ft in diameter.
The plasma immediately sparks and glows and at that point has just become the hottest place in the solar system, hotter even than the core of the sun — that is to say, more than 15 million degrees Centigrade.
Only a system of immensely powerful electromagnets prevents the vessel containing the plasma from being vaporised instantly.
The scientist, who works for the high-tech start-up Tokamak Energy, is part of a team of world-leading experts trying to recreate nuclear fusion, the process that makes stars burn — for the fusion of two atoms of hydrogen to make one of helium, releases vast quantities of energy.
Harnessing fusion on a commercial scale has been the energy technology sector's holy grail since the 1930s.
Now, that goal is no longer sci-fi fantasy but fast approaching science fact. And the good news is that Tokamak, a British company, is a world leader in the race to develop a commercially viable fusion device that will revolutionise the energy-generation sector.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“A man-made sun that could power our planet”
Words from Dr. Octopus in Spiderman 2.
What does that Greta chick has to say about this plan?
At 15 million degrees I guess this isn’t cold fusion.
Sounds like an uncontrolled burn if it gets loose.
What could possibly go wrong?
Kevmo is the resident expert on that.
Warning: don’t poke any fun at Kevmo or what he posts. He’s a sensitive and serious guy.
That's one way to reboot the planet that its inhabitants are unable to fix.
I will not taunt happy fun Kevmo.
Is this out of the 1956 Popular Science Magazine?
Headshake.
It would probably be more productive to work on our ability to harness and store the power of the real Sun.
“Warning: don’t poke any fun at Kevmo or what he posts.”
He gets upset and keeps pinging the mods.
The good news is that England is an island, so the rest of the planet would probably be ok if it caught on fire...
;-)
“I will not taunt happy fun Kevmo.”
There you go, cracking wise about Kevmo. Now you’ve done it.
#1..My eye saw “Tokamak”; the company that will be developing this system.
But my brain said Tomohawk.
I must have had that baseball team on my mind.
#2..This system sounds as enormously dangerous as it is powerful.
I hope this company is designing several Fool Proof methods to quickly turn this OFF if need be.
I get tired of scientists messing around playing God. Who needs another giant ball of fire we have one of those already.
> He insists that the company is on track to deliver the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion power plants by the late 2030s.
Well at least he didn’t say “in only 10 years”.
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