The Strange History
of Fusion and
the Science of
Wishful Thinking
by Charles Seife
Posted on 02/12/2022 10:10:21 AM PST by fireman15
“The old joke is that nuclear fusion is 30 years away and always will be,” quips Greg De Temmerman, managing director of Paris-based energy think tank Zenon Research. In fact, the joke has become so hackneyed over the decades it has been banned by editors at the Economist. “But more seriously, many things are happening right now in the field,” De Temmerman adds.
Jokes aside, they are. Earlier this month, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor eclipsed previous records by sustaining a high plasma temperature for minutes (1,056 seconds). It reached two milestones: a one-million-ampere current and a 1,000-second duration 100-million-degree temperature (that is five times hotter than the sun). Back in August 2021, the National Ignition Facility at the US’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory also heralded a breakthrough using a different approach: it deployed powerful lasers to start a fusion reaction that generated 1.3 megajoules (MJ). That is only about 3% of the energy contained in 1kg of crude oil, but it was another milestone. Meanwhile, private nuclear fusion projects have been booming in recent years.
Nuclear fusion has long been considered the energy of the future: a supposedly infinite source of power that does not produce CO2 emissions. However, after decades of research, it is still to deliver on its potential. How much closer do these new breakthroughs bring us? What role could nuclear fusion play in the world’s race to hit net zero by 2050?
(Excerpt) Read more at energymonitor.ai ...
The plain truth is the wet dream of fusion research pulls funding and approvals away from new, intrinsically safe fission reactors.
Not only does this mean more costly, dirty power for the foreseeable future, it also prevents today’s nuclear waste from being burned and reduced to a 5% residue that is inert in just 300 years.
:) Thank you, some sane conversation.
“... 3 Mile Island which is STILL not cleaned up enough to walk your dog through it.”
https://www.idsemergencymanagement.com/2020/12/09/is-3-mile-island-safe-now/
BTW, cleanup ended in December 1993. Three Mile Island Generating Station Unit 1 continued operation until September 20, 2019. It is, literally, an island and is privately owned. So, I don’t think walking your dog there is even an option. Though part of the island isn’t locked off and guarded, so I guess it is.
“... with no real place to store nuke waste for 100,000 years”
Yes, we have approximately 500 years of known exploitable reserves of coal in this country at current rates of consumption. Other than CO2 which is not a pollutant or a key driver of the climate they already put out only a minute amount of pollution. Like China and India, we should be building more coal fired power plants.
My solar batteries have a 19-year warranty (really it's 7,000 depths of discharges, but since that happens once per day that's 7,000 days which is slightly over 19 years) with a gradual degradation to 50% capacity at the end of the warranty. And the warranty requires I don't discharge them more than 80% (making my 30 kWh of storage a usuable 24 kWh storage), but I discharge them only 70% to get more life out of them (making it effective 21 kWh storage). At the end of the 19 years it'll be 15 kWh (12 kWh usable).
My panels have a 25-year warranty with a gradual decline in efficiency to 70% at the end of the warranty. So my current 10 kW of solar will be 7 kW at the end of 25 years.
As far as maintenance goes, it depends. I have no trees near my house -- no sap or such dripping on them requiring me to clean them. Plus, my roof that they're on is at a steep pitch -- making it so that pollen and such doesn't build up as much. A rain cleans them, particularly at the steep pitch. Plus, snow and ice gives it a deep clean when the snow melts and washes off. I've had them a year and they still produce 10 kW like they did originally with no cleaning.
Windex is a bad substance for solar panels. The best cleanser is plain water. I expect to have to clean them every few years with water and a soft rubber brush. I can reach them from my deck with a ladder with this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HGJ9TRP/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&aaxitk=b98379cc14aaca8ef5fcc6424885f81a&hsa_cr_id=1036087300401&pd_rd_plhdr=t&pd_rd_r=f86ea3e2-ea65-4322-a976-15a1982af7b0&pd_rd_w=iCRgk&pd_rd_wg=rxQQh&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_mcd_asin_2_title.
If I upgrade it and add solar panels (something I might do if I get an EV to help me hedge against gasoline price inflation like I'm already hedged against power price inflation and natural gas inflation), the only roof space I left for more panels is on a slight pitch (not a steep pitch), which means they might need cleaning once per year. Because of the slight pitch they're out of reach from a pole, even on a ladder. I'd have to get on the roof (not a big deal if you grew up cleaning gutters at a house with trees all around it like I did).
Yes, thank you. Our power grid needs to be protected now by reliable means of energy production. This includes more fossil fuel power plants and especially more nuclear power plants. I do not have a problem with continuing research in fusion solutions, but currently there are perverse incentives tilting the scale.
Of course power, natural gas, and gasoline prices have all inflated more than 3% lately. If the Dims keep getting their wish and keep inflating them more, my system will pay for itself sooner.
“Science” turned into a scam about 30 years ago...
Hey thank you for the information. Appreciate the insite.
We live in an area with very poor potential for both solar and for wind generation. We are surrounded by tall fir trees. The power goes out frequently and I printed a natural gas conversion venturi flange of my own design for our generator. Natural gas in this area is currently 75% less expensive than gasoline when running a generator. It also can go on for days and weeks with only a check of the engine oil level.
I have very precise instrumentation. Even though we save a lot of money using natural gas when using the generator for extended periods... it still costs several times per kwh depending on the load when using the generator. Most people do not do the calculations or keep track of consumption as we do and are not aware of what various forms of energy production actually cost.
I sure hope so. I have a large investment position in uranium. Coal and oil too…
It was probably implied, but I should have said that we save a lot of money using natural gas vs gasoline when using the generator.
It is interesting the amount of investment going toward fusion by major players however. But, a billion here and billion there by Gates and Bezos is kind of small potatoes and likely also has PR advantages for them.
As we all know nuclear Fusion energy is right around the corner, as it has been for the last 70 years.
But there is a nuclear energy source that has been providing safe, reliable, cheap, non-co2 emitting electricity for decades - nuclear fission.
The environazi are always in favor of nonexisting pipedreams, and if they ever become a reality then they go about finding fault with it, and destroying. IOW, they’re against anything that works.
Why so many of us let them dictate how we should live is beyond me.
Does this mean that we have to depend on dirty fossil fuels for our energy in our near future?
If fusion power could be developed to the point of 95% safe operations it would not be allowed to operate by the Rats.
The left would rather the U.S. be invested in Wind and Solar power. Two sources that are Wholey undependable when needed.
These are the same idiots that are trying to force the American People into driving electric vehicles.
Nuke the windmills!
“no real place to store nuke waste for 100,000 years”
You have to consider the tiny volume of the nuclear waste.
If you don't mind my asking, have you seen natural gas go up a lot this past year? I saw it going up bigly, particularly on the henry hub commodities market.
The Strange History
of Fusion and
the Science of
Wishful Thinking
by Charles Seife
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