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I think their universal quantum computer (to be announced later this year) could accelerate fusion research even more, as I imagine it could more accurately sim
by mtgx 9y ago
I think their universal quantum computer (to be announced later this year) could accelerate fusion research even more, as I imagine it could more accurately simulate the atom reactions and experiments on it. Practical quantum computers may just be what we were missing to finally be able build working fusion reactors.
The millions of possible "solutions" and algorithms for working fusion reactors may be what has made fusion research so expensive and fusion reactors seem so far away. Quantum computers may be able to cut right through that hard problem, although we may have to wait a bit more until quantum computers are useful enough to make an impact on fusion research. I don't know if that's reaching 1,000 qubits or 1 million qubits.
- _FKS_ 9y agoEven if you had the computing power AND if you were simulating your fusion reactor's plasma in realtime, while it's running AND you know/can predict the plasma instabilities in realtime (under a few ms), you still need a way to "counter" those instabilites in the said plasma. And you need to counter fast, before the instability "poisons" the entire plasma, something that should happen within a few ms. If you don't, your entire experiment stops, and it takes a while to get it back (minutes). Currently: 1. nobody really understands the instabilities, why and when they happen; 2. there's no way to 'counter' them. So it's not only about the computing power.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]