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From the article. "Although many scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore. Fusion reaction
by motoxpro 4y ago
From the article.
"Although many scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore. Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years."
Not sure if you were expecting things to progress faster. But it it "only" takes 20 years. That would be insanely fast and world changing.
- LatteLazy 4y agoSorry, I was actually making a joke: fusion power has been described as "a decade away for the last 50 years" which I think sums it up pretty well... https://www.engineering.com/story/why-is-fusion-power-is-always-50-years-away https://www.engineering.com/story/why-is-fusion-power-is-alw... The potential is hard to ignore, but that doesn't mean the potential will ever be achieved. This (like crypto currency) is the realm of vapourware I am afraid. Always just around the corner. :(
- weberer 4y ago>vaporware Have you never heard of ITER? Its set to power on in 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
- LatteLazy 4y agoWhat's sort of my point: we've had big projects that would totally definitely work this time every few years since the 90s. Will ITER work? Maybe. Would it be the first to fail (or even the 10th) if it doesn't? No. Per your own link there are literally 100s of other "reactors". Its the same as crypto or emissions reductions.
- omniglottal 4y agoWhat value are you contributing to this conversation?
- tazjin 4y agoI remember hearing about ITER back in school, a long time ago, and being told that they were just about to finally assemble the thing now. That's pretty much the definition of vaporware, but maybe it will actually go the route of Duke Nukem :)
- postingawayonhn 4y agoIt is being assembled right now, it is just taking a bloody long time to do so.
- weberer 4y agoConstruction began in 2007 and its moving along according to schedule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER#Timeline_and_status https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER#Timeline_and_status
- simiones 4y ago> produce no long-lived radioactive waste It's important to note that while this is technically true, it's mostly irrelevant. Sure, there's no material that will remain radioactive for the next 10k years, but instead you get much more highly radioactive material that will emit high doses for a "short" hundred years or so.
- LatteLazy 4y agoIt's worth noting that the last 2 generations of fission plants were guaranteed to produce no waste, to be cheap, efficient, reliable etc. The unpalatable truth here is that we have no idea what fusion power will look like until we have built a few. The quoted section made me laugh as it's easy to be zero carbon when you don't actually exist... :)
- zackoverflow 4y agoCan you elaborate more about the guarantees about no waste?