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This comment sums up HN beautifully: "Here's an article from a subject matter expert on this topic, but I'm going to go ahead and ignore everything that was sai
by woeirua 4y ago
This comment sums up HN beautifully: "Here's an article from a subject matter expert on this topic, but I'm going to go ahead and ignore everything that was said because it doesn't fit my narrative."
- Sohcahtoa82 4y agoI mean, that's the entire internet.
- hinkley 4y agoYou find us a subject matter expert in building production fusion power plants and we’ll get back to you. What we have are a bunch of R&D people, some of which are using ingredients for which the entire world combined possesses enough fuel to run a single power plant for only two months, and then we’re out.
- hinkley 4y agoToo late to edit, but my source on the 2 months comment comes from an interview with Helion, who I think made the front page a couple of weeks ago, but in summary they are trying to smash two plasma balls together and then directly capture the magnetic flux created by the resulting fusion, rather than using a heat engine: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_bDXXWQxK38&t=1081s https://youtube.com/watch?v=_bDXXWQxK38&t=1081s They talk about why ITER has no viable fuel source, and about how they (Helion) are going to have to run two configurations of fusion plants in order to source their own fuel. One that produces a 10% power surplus, undesirable neutrons and the fuel for their power plants. They didn’t say anything but I suspect they’ll end up coming up with a use for the neutrons, perhaps making fuels for other processes. Someone will likely eyeball that waste heat as well.