Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Major breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy WWW.BBC.COM A lab in Oxfordshire takes a big step towards harnessing the energy source of the stars. Quote European scientists say they have made a major breakthrough in their quest to develop practical nuclear fusion - the energy process that powers the stars. The UK-based JET laboratory has smashed its own world record for the amount of energy it can extract by squeezing together two forms of hydrogen. If nuclear fusion can be successfully recreated on Earth it holds out the potential of virtually unlimited supplies of low-carbon, low-radiation energy. The experiments produced 59 megajoules of energy over five seconds (11 megawatts of power). This is more than double what was achieved in similar tests back in 1997. It's not a massive energy output - only enough to boil about 60 kettles' worth of water. But the significance is that it validates design choices that have been made for an even bigger fusion reactor now being constructed in France. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreePi Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 I'm sure like every other breakthrough in nuclear fusion, a commercial application is just 20 years away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 I skimmed the article and I didn't see the only piece of information I care about: was this net-positive output? Even if it was just barely net-positive that's a really big breakthrough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 9, 2022 Author Share Posted February 9, 2022 10 minutes ago, Jason said: I skimmed the article and I didn't see the only piece of information I care about: was this net-positive output? Even if it was just barely net-positive that's a really big breakthrough. We haven't even gotten to break-even yet, far less net-positive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 3 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said: We haven't even gotten to break-even yet, far less net-positive That's what I thought. Therefore, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted February 9, 2022 Author Share Posted February 9, 2022 @Jason - The Nature article about the experiment contains information about its energy efficiency: Nuclear-fusion reactor smashes energy record WWW.NATURE.COM The experimental Joint European Torus has doubled the record for the amount of energy made from fusing atoms — the process that powers the Sun. The experimental Joint European Torus has doubled the record for the amount of energy made from fusing atoms — the process that powers the Sun. Quote Last year, the US Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility set a different fusion record — it used laser technology to produce the highest fusion power output relative to power in, a value called Q. The facility produced a Q of 0.7, where 1 would be breakeven — a landmark for laser fusion that beat JET’s 1997 record. But the event was short lived, producing just 1.9 megajoules over less than 4 billionths of a second. JET’s latest experiment sustained a Q value of 0.33 for five seconds, says Rimini. At one-tenth of the volume, JET is a scaled-down version of ITER — a bathtub compared to a swimming pool, says Proll, and because it loses heat more easily it was never expected to hit breakeven. If engineers applied the same conditions and physics approach to ITER, she says, it would probably reach its goal of a Q of 10, producing ten times the energy put in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 X-Com soon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Vic20 Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Ain't no tokomak like a tokomak with high yields! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uaarkson Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 My plan was to just section off a 1,000 sq. mile chunk of federal land in the desert and build a grid of thousands of nuclear power plants. But commercial fusion works too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b_m_b_m_b_m Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 1 hour ago, ThreePi said: I'm sure like every other breakthrough in nuclear fusion, a commercial application is just 20 years away. Commercial fusion Self driving cars 🤝 “Tomorrow” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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