US Scientists Announce New Breakthrough With Fusion Energy

[DocWatts]

Obviously we're still a ways off from the technology being scaled up enough to be commercially viable, but using Fusion to produce more energy than is put in certainly sounds like a BFD.

Would be interested to hear from anyone who's very well versed in nuclear physics as to your thoughts on the matter.

Edited December 13, 2022 by DocWatts

[8Ball]

If it happens in my lifetime, that is practically unlimited clean energy, I hope it'll be available to poorer countries. This is an opportunity to take mankind forward. 

[Hardkill]

Yeah! 

It's truly fascinating!

If nuclear fusion energy does become a widely available and viable source of renewable energy that is safely used all around the world, then it will no doubt revolutionize the whole world. We would really be living in the future.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Hardkill

[Starlight321]

Sry, for upsetting the good news. It's nice that they took this hurdle but it's just an exaggeration and probably unimportant for reactors for energy generation because these reactor types are have more complicated problems to solve than magnetic ones.  if we hadn't had a energy crisis I doubt that it would have made the news. It's true that more energy came out than they shot in but it's still a tiny amout to the actual energy belance like generating the laser beam so they still used more energy than and they got out of it. So they are still miles away from a functioning fusion reactor and if the funding isn't increased I wouldn't bet my life on seeing it on the grit.

[Kanddle]

On 12/13/2022 at 0:47 PM, DocWatts said:

Obviously we're still a ways off from the technology being scaled up enough to be commercially viable, but using Fusion to produce more energy than is put in certainly sounds like a BFD.

Would be interested to hear from anyone who's very well versed in nuclear physics as to your thoughts on the matter.

The problem with most scientific news is that there's no real context for the news. 

How important is this advancement compared to other advancements? What kinds of compounding changes could it provide? What kinds of energy was put into the laser? Are there any indicators that we can create more efficient lasers or long-term power generation methods to kickstart the process? What is the overall power gain after you account for all the power input that went into the laser? How long until these changes get deployed into real life? What kind of marginal cost would those deployments have? What kinds of marginal impact would come from these changes?

 

None of these questions are answered. Though, contextually they're important to know before celebrating. Then again, I haven't read the associated research either.

[lisindel]

This should have more upvotes. 

[Danioover9000]

@DocWatts

On 2022-12-13 at 5:47 PM, DocWatts said:

Obviously we're still a ways off from the technology being scaled up enough to be commercially viable, but using Fusion to produce more energy than is put in certainly sounds like a BFD.

Would be interested to hear from anyone who's very well versed in nuclear physics as to your thoughts on the matter.

   Very interesting, can this discovery cheapen the energy bill? Do they have a back up plan if there's a nuclear breakdown?