4 ms·
While I appreciate all the effort in nuclear fusion and do think we should continue to invest a little of each years global R&D budget, it seems these reactors
by mgoetzke 4y ago
While I appreciate all the effort in nuclear fusion and do think we should continue to invest a little of each years global R&D budget, it seems these reactors (e.g ITER and this one) still require tritium which is rather hard to come by efficiently.
Which means normal nuclear reactors will be needed to make it and minimising any economic viability of the dependent fusion rector for a long long time.
- atemerev 4y agoNormal nuclear reactors are a good thing too, and they alone are enough to solve all of humanity’s energy problems (though we should pursue fusion power too, of course). See Integral Fast Reactor.
- VaxWithSex 4y agoOnly if you use the notoriously dangerous breeder reactors – otherwise there isn't enough fuel.
- atemerev 4y agoBreeder reactors are not "notoriously dangerous", they are just a little too expensive to justify their construction when the uranium is cheap (like it is now). Also, there are proliferation risks. However, these are not engineering problems nor scientific problems, breeder reactors are production-ready and safe.
- OkayPhysicist 4y agoI've never really gotten the "proliferation risk" in the context of US power production (or China, Russia, or even France, for that matter). We're talking about existing nuclear powers, they already have the capacity to make nuclear weapons. If they wanted more they would make more, for the simple reason that having nuclear weapons is table stakes for being a serious player in geopolitics.
- pfdietz 4y agoFast reactors present the possibility of prompt fast criticality in a serious accident. This could be worse than Chernobyl.
- echelon 4y ago> tritium which is rather hard to come by efficiently I'm not by any means well informed on the matter, but isn't the lunar surface covered in tritium deposits? It might make sense to mine the moon sooner than later. Once we have the necessary equipment and resources there, the delta-v for getting the mined product to Earth isn't nearly as substantial. Building lunar mining tech is likely to unlock all sorts of advances for the human race.
- ceejayoz 4y agoYou're mixing up tritium (hydrogen-3) and helium-3.
- 0xbadc0de5 4y agoI believe the tritium issue is addressed through the inclusion of lithium in the reactor's inner blanket [1]. Something about the neutron interaction with the lithium results in some non-trivial production of tritium which is then freed into the reactor. tl;dr - they've thought of that. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeding_blanket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeding_blanket
- deelowe 4y agoMy understanding is that this is proposed, but has not yet been tested. In fact, one of the goals of ITER is to test various breeder blanket designs.
- 0xbadc0de5 4y agoIsn't this the case with nearly every aspect of "proposed" fusion reactors. Just because it's proposed or "not yet tested on a commercial fusion reactor" does not necessarily mean that the mechanism is not well understood.
- deelowe 4y agoI think if it were so well understood, ITER wouldn't be testing over 100 different breeder blanket designs. I've seen breeder blanket design described as one of the biggest challenges with fusion today.
- 0xbadc0de5 4y agoI would expect that it is more a matter of selecting the best/optimized design rather than demonstrating the fundamental viability of tritium breeding.
- colechristensen 4y agoTritium will be bred in the reactor that uses it. Exactly how is a problem which will be solved further down the development path but there’s little question about the viability of that.