5 ms·
This doesn’t solve the fact that a single fusion pulse (all existing reactors are pulsed) currently consumes more energy than it produces.
by bicubic 8y ago
This doesn’t solve the fact that a single fusion pulse (all existing reactors are pulsed) currently consumes more energy than it produces.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- nine_k 8y agoI remember hearing about break-even events for a few years. E.g. from 2014: https://www.nature.com/news/laser-fusion-experiment-extracts-net-energy-from-fuel-1.14710 https://www.nature.com/news/laser-fusion-experiment-extracts... A design that produces e.g. 2x the energy it consumes for the startup could be viable, even if pulsed (running minutes, not months).
- Chemiseblanc 8y agoIIRC They were able to get net energy from the fuel versus the energy of the x-rays used to ignite it. But not in terms of the energy of the lasers used to create the x-rays by vaporizing the fuel pellet.