3 ms·
No, we won't. The whole point of fusion power is that it takes very little fuel to produce a lot of energy. That means very little helium ash produced. If all
by gliese1337 6y ago
No, we won't. The whole point of fusion power is that it takes very little fuel to produce a lot of energy. That means very little helium ash produced.
If all of the world's current electric power production were fueled by fusion, the helium produced would be a drop in the bucket compared to the total existing helium market.
- scythe 6y agoTo illustrate this point, producing all of the electricity the United States uses in a year by D-T fusion would give around 20-100 kg of helium depending on efficiency.
- m4rtink 6y agoI wonder if you could run the process energy negative to produce a lot of helium instead of energy ?
- eloff 6y agoThe answer should be clear from the quantities in the parent comment. No. Not economically viable at any plausible price.
- TomMarius 6y agoMaybe we will start projects with enormous power requirements?
- vilhelm_s 6y agoHow do you get this number? Googling a bit, the D-T reaction produces 17.59 MeV per helium atom, so it should yield 17.59 MeV / (helium-4 atomic mass) = 0.117 TWh/kg in thermal energy per kg of helium produced. The U.S. electricity production in 2019 was 4,118 TWh [1] and 4118 TWh / 0.117 (TWh/kg) = 35,196 kg. If we assume some inefficency in the thermal->electricity conversion, I guess it should produce at least 70,000 kg/year. [1] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3