Fusion confusion: Sorry, We have to throw a little cold water on the recent "breakthrough" in sustainable energy

American Thinker ^ | 12/17/2022 | Mark C. Ross

[SeekAndFind]

The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore Lab (LLL) in Northern California has recently gotten a lot of attention.  It was just announced that they finally fused some hydrogen atoms and got more energy out than they put in — a net positive result.  Drew Magary, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, throws a little cold water on the event by adding that the lasers causing the fusion reaction were powered by electricity generated at way less than perfect efficiency.

hrowing more cold water, I was told by someone who worked on the facility in question that they already had a net positive event about fifteen years ago. I suggested that they might be tooting their horn now in order to get a bump in funding. He agreed.

What's being left out of the discussion is the commercial viability of the whole concept. Some years ago, Scientific American ran an article that compared nuclear power generation to that from natural gas. Building a natural gas generating station is fairly cheap, leaving the cost of fuel as the primary expense for producing electricity. A nuclear plant is particularly expensive to build — while the cost of enriched uranium is insignificant when calculating the bottom line. The amortization of the construction cost over the life span of the facility is the primary expense for nuclear...which is still fairly cost-competitive with gas, coal, and hydro.

This brings us to the possibly immense cost of building a fusion power plant. Magary also mentions the continuing twenty-year time horizon reset. When projecting the real-world implementation of fusion energy, the goal posts are constantly being moved farther and farther away. Now that we know that controlled fusion is possible, making it economically feasible is the true challenge.

[curious7]

Except in China, unfortunately.

[EEGator]

Perspective...
:)

[BradyLS]

I’m very glad we don’t have flying cars.

[seowulf]

I was supposed to be in a flying car and sleeping with Judy Jetson by now.

And what you get is an electric golf cart to drive and Astro to sleep with.

[Terabitten]

Meanwhile LFTR (thorium) is within easy reach, but can’t get funding.

If we were even remotely concerned about clean energy, we'd be dumping money into thorium reactors.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

The fusion sample released 3 megajoules of energy after being struck by 2 megajoules of laser energy. Unfortunately, the laser equipment required 300 megajoules of energy to generate 2 megajoules of laser energy.

You described the fusion energy problem succinctly. Due to the sun's enormous gravity and mass of hydrogen atoms, the sun only needs a temperature of 25 million degrees Fahrenheit to start the fusion process. But here on little ol' Earth, we need a temperature of a whopping 250 million degrees Fahrenheit to initiate fusion.

[Tacrolimus1mg]

All I see in my mind when I read, “Philosopher’s Stone” is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Excellent Anime with a compelling story that contains relieving humor but isn’t childish - I highly recommend it. It more closely follows the original manga (comic) than the first iteration of the series, which was being released while the manga was being written. When the series overtook the manga, instead of filler episodes or long breaks, they wrote their own ending. I prefer Brotherhood.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist:_Brotherhood (contains spoilers).

[zeestephen]

Thanks for your comment.

Although I have been casually reading about man made fusion for decades, it was just a few days ago that I understood for the first time that the mass and gravity of the sun are essential factors in solar fusion.

I always assumed that man made fusion reactors were identical to a tiny little speck of the sun's core.

Instead, 250 million F required for fusion on Earth versus just 25 million F inside the sun is completely astounding.

I have been an avid and life long supporter of tax payer funded basic research and experimental physics, but the money the USA has shoveled into fusion research for 70 years is really beginning to look like criminal waste.

Basic research in fission reactors is almost as bad.

My step brother was an engineering executive for about ten years for a miniature fission reactor start up (pebble bed, I think). 80% of his budget came from government agencies, and the company is still in the start up phase.

[Organic Panic]

Look on the brightside. 40 years ago we only had ten years left until certain doom.

[The Great RJ]

I may be cynical, but the big hoopla surrounding this “ breakthrough” has the all hallmarks of a political stunt. Practical fusion power is at least decades away from ever being practical. These positive energy results are only on a laboratory scale and might never be reproduced on the industrial scale needed to provide enough power to run even a fraction of our economy. It is interesting to note that no similar “breakthroughs” are being breathlessly announced for new wind or solar technologies nor for practical batteries for EVs.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Nachoman]

The solution seems simple enough. Build a starter laser, similar to a starter capacitor on an electric motor, and when the fusion kicks off, send the energy through a power feedback loop. 2 megajoules maintains the reaction, and 1 megajoule is created for power consumption.

Who do I see about my consulting contract?

[GOPJ]

I didn’t fall for it this time...