4 ms·

Nuclear fusion will be the answer to baseload energy requirements without the need to worry over meltdown concerns. There will be no need to do city or urban p

Nuclear fusion will be the answer to baseload energy requirements without the need to worry over meltdown concerns. There will be no need to do city or urban planning around radioactive fallout or leaks because fusion simply doesn't have those problems.

mathiasgredal 4y ago
How does nuclear fusion solve the issue of rivers getting too hot, such that the plant has to shut down?
- m_a_g 4y ago
  There are fusion reactor designs that don't use water. They directly convert to electricity with magnetic fields.
  - llsf 4y ago
    Are you sure about this ? Not heat is produced ? Cold fusion has been controversial in the 80's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion) and never really escape the lab.
    - willis936 4y ago
      They're likely referring to p+B11 fusion which is a potentially viable reaction that emits all its energy as accelerated charged particles (a current), which can, in theory, be slowed down by inducing a current in a coil (direct conversion). This skips the thermal cycle of electricity generation. There would still be heat, but it would be contained to the plasma with some amount of leak/waste. There are a great number of asterisks on this. We are not close to making a p+B11 reactor.
      - llsf 4y ago
        Interesting. But I suspect it would take quite some time to get something like that in production. Nonetheless, we should keep do research, it could be the next generation of fusion reactors.
        willis936 4y ago
        It depends on how bullish you are on Zap and Helion. I think it is exciting times, but there are inevitable booms and busts in hype and funding. Results are what matter, and those are coming.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- q1w2 4y ago
  That isn't much of an issue unless the river is extremely small. The huge amount of water traveling on most rivers with nuclear plants is orders of magnitude more than what's used in to do the heat transfer in the reactor.
acdha 4y ago
It’d be great but … when does it go online? I’m not going any more and it’s been “real soon now” for my entire life. We no longer have decades to wait, especially when we can cover the vast majority of needs with renewables for less money.

mathiasgredal 4y ago

How does nuclear fusion solve the issue of rivers getting too hot, such that the plant has to shut down?

m_a_g 4y ago
There are fusion reactor designs that don't use water. They directly convert to electricity with magnetic fields.
- llsf 4y ago
  Are you sure about this ? Not heat is produced ? Cold fusion has been controversial in the 80's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion) and never really escape the lab.
  - willis936 4y ago
    They're likely referring to p+B11 fusion which is a potentially viable reaction that emits all its energy as accelerated charged particles (a current), which can, in theory, be slowed down by inducing a current in a coil (direct conversion). This skips the thermal cycle of electricity generation. There would still be heat, but it would be contained to the plasma with some amount of leak/waste. There are a great number of asterisks on this. We are not close to making a p+B11 reactor.
    - llsf 4y ago
      Interesting. But I suspect it would take quite some time to get something like that in production. Nonetheless, we should keep do research, it could be the next generation of fusion reactors.
      - willis936 4y ago
        It depends on how bullish you are on Zap and Helion. I think it is exciting times, but there are inevitable booms and busts in hype and funding. Results are what matter, and those are coming.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
q1w2 4y ago
That isn't much of an issue unless the river is extremely small. The huge amount of water traveling on most rivers with nuclear plants is orders of magnitude more than what's used in to do the heat transfer in the reactor.

acdha 4y ago

It’d be great but … when does it go online? I’m not going any more and it’s been “real soon now” for my entire life. We no longer have decades to wait, especially when we can cover the vast majority of needs with renewables for less money.