Is Nuclear Fusion possible ?

[Apple]

US press reporting big news revelation later today (Tuesday) they have made a significant breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion. Picked up by some of the papers here it seems the scientists have doubled the amount of energy put in.

Is it possible we are on the brink of a major discovery that sorts out future energy problems? 

(sorry not familiar with the actual nuclear science involved )

Edited December 13, 2022 by Apple
typo

[GD4ELI]

3 hours ago, Apple said:

US press reporting big news revelation later today (Tuesday) they have made a significant breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion. Picked up by some of the papers here it seems the scientists have doubled the amount of energy put in.

Is it possible we are on the brink of a major discovery that sorts out future energy problems? 

(sorry not familiar with the actual nuclear science involved )

Lots of good info on CNN.com

[wrighty]

It’s definitely possible - if it weren’t there’d be no stars, in fact not much at all. 
 

It’s definitely possible on earth - that’s what Hydrogen bombs do. 
 

The key issue is to control it, and get it self sustaining so you don’t have to use a massive amount of energy to raise temperatures high enough for fusion to start. It works on the sun because gravity pulls everything together raising pressure and temperature to levels where fusion happens, but is balanced by radiation pressure of the energy released which tends to expansion. The sun keeps shining. 
 

[All that is a very rough outline. The basic physics is E=mc^2 - 4 hydrogen atoms fuse into a helium atom. The atomic mass of helium is slightly less than the 4 hydrogens, the lost mass is released as energy]

[quilp]

Too early...

 

😵‍💫

Edited December 13, 2022 by quilp

[Asthehills]

2 minutes ago, quilp said:

Too early...

Agreed.  Ask me again in an hour.

[GD4ELI]

19 minutes ago, wrighty said:

It’s definitely possible - if it weren’t there’d be no stars, in fact not much at all. 
 

It’s definitely possible on earth - that’s what Hydrogen bombs do. 
 

The key issue is to control it, and get it self sustaining so you don’t have to use a massive amount of energy to raise temperatures high enough for fusion to start. It works on the sun because gravity pulls everything together raising pressure and temperature to levels where fusion happens, but is balanced by radiation pressure of the energy released which tends to expansion. The sun keeps shining. 
 

[All that is a very rough outline. The basic physics is E=mc^2 - 4 hydrogen atoms fuse into a helium atom. The atomic mass of helium is slightly less than the 4 hydrogens, the lost mass is released as energy]

Maybe within our lifetimes.

[HiVibes]

44 minutes ago, GD4ELI said:

Maybe within our lifetimes.

That soon?

[Thorulf]

I read somewhere that the UK Gov wants to invite US companies over to look at building more Nuclear plants, I find this rather scary as these US power company's don't have a good track record.

Its a pity they cant build Thorium reactors but they wont because they cant use them to build weapons.  p.s. I know its fission not fusion.

And maybe the IoM Gov can beach an old Russian submarine up Jurby as a bit of a project for some civil servant to waste his time on. reduce Co2 at all cost...soon 

 

[Apple]

4 hours ago, GD4ELI said:

Lots of good info on CNN.com

https://edition.cnn.com

A glimmer of hope. Sounds feasible.

(failed chemistry)

[wrighty]

7 hours ago, Apple said:

(failed chemistry)

This is mainly physics. So that too?

[woolley]

6 minutes ago, wrighty said:

This is mainly physics. So that too?

Explains why he failed chemistry. He thought he was sitting physics.

[manxman1980]

11 hours ago, Thorulf said:

I read somewhere that the UK Gov wants to invite US companies over to look at building more Nuclear plants, I find this rather scary as these US power company's don't have a good track record.

That will be Westinghouse and it's AP1000 pressurised water reactor?

It seems to be as proven as the European Pressure Reactor being used at Hinkley Point C.

[code99]

This is good news provided that it does not encourage the public to become complacent about climate change/ global warming. This technology will probably not be available on any scale for several years but the humanity does not have several years which it can waste doing nothing. Scientists have modelled that if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed significantly in the next decade, the world will have likely reached a point of no return. From that point forward our planet will be on a trajectory to ever increasing temperatures that cannot be stopped. In which case the nuclear fusion breakthrough will have been developed too late to meaningfully change the planet’s destiny.

[Thorulf]

On 12/13/2022 at 5:56 PM, wrighty said:

This is mainly physics. So that too?

Yea and this physics blows my mind of energy gain. I wish I was clever enough to understand it a bit more.

[Thorulf]

2 hours ago, code99 said:

This is good news provided that it does not encourage the public to become complacent about climate change/ global warming. This technology will probably not be available on any scale for several years but the humanity does not have several years which it can waste doing nothing. Scientists have modelled that if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed significantly in the next decade, the world will have likely reached a point of no return. From that point forward our planet will be on a trajectory to ever increasing temperatures that cannot be stopped. In which case the nuclear fusion breakthrough will have been developed too late to meaningfully change the planet’s destiny.

Didn't think about the complacency of climate change. 

Just keep the Bankers/Eqt firms out of it and the scientists in control. I do think it's the way forward and this fusion thingy is very interesting. 

I have been on an icebreaker wich got refuelled every 6 years with if i remeber correctly 400kg of uranium alloy, just think how much oil a normal ship would of used in that time.