World's Largest Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor Clears Milestone

[crazytown]

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is set to launch operations in 2025

(snip)The world’s first commercial-scale fusion reactor project is on track to officially launch operations at the end of 2025, said spokeswoman Sabina Griffith, but it will take at least a decade to fully power up the facility.

“The date for First Plasma is set; we will push the button in December 2025,” Griffith said. “It will take another 10 years until we reach full deuterium-tritium operations.”

Thirty-five nations are cooperating on the project to bring fusion power to the masses.

Achieving controlled fusion reactions that net more power than they take to generate, and at commercial scale, is seen as a potential answer to climate change. Fusion energy would eliminate the need for fossil fuels and solve the intermittency and reliability concerns inherent with renewable energy sources. The energy would be generated without the dangerous amounts of radiation that raises concerns about fission nuclear energy.

Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-largest-nuclear-fusion-experiment-clears-milestone/

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. we have more energy than we need from another fusion reactor

The sun provides more energy than we can handle -- hence, climate crisis -- it's just in the wrong places, concentrations, and forms.

[crazytown]

2. I believe economics will kill nuclear power.

The astounding progress in renewable energy over the last 20 years, suggests me that anything else will become unenecomic. If the cost of PVs and batteries halve, and halve again over the next decade, it's game over.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. automakers put the brakes on

We'd be a lot further along if the world's automakers and oil companies had not been actively engaged in sabotaging progress in order to protect multiple revenue streams. The astroturfing (or "stealth marketing" as they call it) alone continues to drag on the world.

[crazytown]

4. Do you remember 'Who Killed the Electric Car?' (2006)

Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/

GM hunted down every last one of those EV-1s. There is a prototype in the Smithsonian.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. yep. have a copy here.

Electric commuters have been feasible since at least the 1960s, based on lead-acid batteries. The average commute is about 16 miles. You don't have to haul a lot of lead to achieve a reasonable multiple of that.

Of course, switching to an EV you have to be willing to give up:
* exhaust system (pipes, hangers, muffler, catalytic converter, EGR, sensors)
* cooling system (radiator, hoses, overflow, pump, thermostat)
* fuel system (tank, lines, filters, pumps, ECM)
* the engine (belts, plugs, injectors, filters, pistons, rings, valves, oil, pumps, vacuum hoses, etc)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. You forgot what you also have to give up

All the grime and grease and oil and combustion byproducts that you have to deal with when fixing Hydrocarbon vehicles.

[DetlefK]

6. Nuclear power is the future. You are overlooking one crucial factor:

Wind, solar and water create electricity in a decentraliced grid. Currently, our grids are built for centralized electricity-production.

In order to switch to environmentally friendly electricity-sources, we would need a MASSIVE OVERHAUL of almost the entire electricity-grid of a country from centralized to decentralized balancing of voltage and current.

The US can't even repair its bridges. What are the odds it will be able to pull off an even bigger infrastructure-project?



Fusion-reactors are centralized electricity-production. You take a fission-reactor offline, you bring a fusion-reactor online, and grid and consumers won't notice any difference.

[crazytown]

7. As I said it is a matter of economics.

Time will tell. There are areas of SoCal where it is economic to go off grid.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Note: This is in FRANCE, not "Great" America. The Cryostat is made in INDIA, not Trumpistan. . . .nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. The Large Hadron Collider is in Europe. REPUBLICONS killed the (earlier) US version

Republicons have been running around killing as much science as they can.

[Ilsa]

11. Thank you, I had a hunch it

wasn't in the US, but wasn't sure where.