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Assuming these experiments work as desired and this reactor can produce more energy than it takes in, how long will it be (roughly) until a power plant becomes
by lucaspiller 11y ago
Assuming these experiments work as desired and this reactor can produce more energy than it takes in, how long will it be (roughly) until a power plant becomes operational (i.e. connected to the grid) that uses this technology? Years, a decade, many decades?
- illumen 11y agoConsidering that this is 9 years late on the build phase... I have no idea. By that fact alone I'd guess decades. But who knows where resources will flow, and what genius lies around the corner! Personally, I'd bet on other technologies being more cost effective for power generation in the next 20 years.
- saalweachter 11y ago5-10 years is the classic naive/huckster estimate. 30-50 years is the respectable man's "I have no idea" estimate for anything.
- creshal 11y agoIt's not yet designed to produce net energy – it can't handle the necessary (radioactive) tritium fuel. Assuming it works as intended, the next step would be a research reactor that can, that would be a pilot project to generate net energy which could be connected to the grid (probably more for symbolic reasons at that point…) and breed tritium for further reactors. Then we can start to plan building actual power plants. So, few decades, as always.
- peletiah 11y agoHere's a comment on that by Prof. Dr. Sibylle Günter, Max-Plank-Institut für Plasmaphysik (In German): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sweAVoaVB34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sweAVoaVB34 The current schedule is to have an operational power plant in 2050.
- ant6n 11y agoFor those who don't speak German, that's the schedule for 2050: ITER is supposed to show by 2027 a successful result to produce more energy than put in. Then they want to rework the design and start building an actual power plant around 2035, allow 10 years of construction, with being connected to the grid around 2050.