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If the claim of nuclear fusion ignition is true, this a huge breakthrough for our species. Livestream announcement:
I cant confirm cause there isnt enough info out there about, but there is also for long discussion at other fusion-test-centers to replace the microwave heating with laser. Microwave-heating needs to much energy, up to twice as with a laser configuration. It depends on the torus configuration. The best results me think would be with a stellarator.
U.S. reaches a fusion power milestone. Will it be enough to save the planet?
A giant laser facility in Livermore, Calif., says it has created net energy from nuclear fusion. It's an important breakthrough, but fusion power remains a distant dream.www.npr.org
Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy have reached a breakthrough in nuclear fusion.
For the first time ever in a laboratory, researchers were able to generate more energy from fusion reactions than they used to start the process. The total gain was around 150%.
"America has achieved a tremendous scientific breakthrough," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at a press conference.
The achievement came at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a $3.5 billion laser complex at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. For more than a decade, NIF has struggled to meet its stated goal of producing a fusion reaction that generates more energy than it consumes.
But that changed in the dead of night on Dec. 5. At 1 AM local time, researchers used laser beams to zap a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel. The lasers produced 2.05 megajoules of energy, and the pellet released roughly 3.15 megajoules.
It's a major milestone, one that the field of fusion science has struggled to reach for more than half a century.
The Two-Way
Scientists Say Their Giant Laser Has Produced Nuclear Fusion
"In our laboratory we've been working on this for almost 60 years," says Mark Herrmann, who oversees the NIF program at Livermore. "This is an incredible team accomplishment."
Researchers say that fusion energy could one day provide clean, safe electricity without greenhouse gas emissions. But even with this announcement, independent scientists believe that dream remains many decades away.
Unless there's an even larger breakthrough, fusion is unlikely to play a major role in power production before the 2060s or 2070s, says Tony Roulstone, a nuclear engineer at Cambridge University in the U.K., who's done an economic analysis of fusion power.
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"I think the science is great," Roulstone says of the breakthrough. But many engineering obstacles remain. "We don't really know what the power plant would look like."
At that rate, fusion power won't come soon enough for the Biden administration, which is seeking to bring America's net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 — a goal that experts say must be met to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Laser power
Fusion power has long fired the imaginations of nuclear scientists and engineers. The technology would work by "fusing" light elements of hydrogen into helium, generating an enormous amount of energy. It's the same process that powers the sun, and it's far more efficient than current nuclear "fission" technology. What's more, fusion power plants would generate relatively little nuclear waste, and they could run off of hydrogen readily found in seawater.
The Two-Way
Scientists Say Their Giant Laser Has Produced Nuclear Fusion
The ten-story-tall NIF facility is the world's most powerful laser system. It is designed to aim 192 beams onto a tiny cylinder of gold and depleted uranium. Inside the cylinder is a diamond capsule smaller than a peppercorn. That capsule is where the magic happens — it's filled with two isotopes of hydrogen that can fuse together to release astonishing amounts of energy.
When the lasers are fired at the target, they generate x-rays that vaporize the diamond in a tiny fraction of a second. The shockwave from the diamond's destruction crushes the hydrogen atoms, causing them to fuse and release energy.
NIF first opened in 2009, but its initial laser shots fell well short of expectations. The hydrogen in the target was failing to "ignite", and the Department of Energy had little to show for the billions it had invested.
There was another article about economic point of new experiment , I think US is preparing for past gas/oil era(2050 or later).Well, the thing is that in that configuration they still need more energy "in total" as they get out of the fusion.
There are a lot players who also did this experiment times ago. The point is that one can get a "fusion" also with other configurations if it is put enough energy into it. At the moment the fusion research is imho slowed down cause the existing experiments have to exist for long time to melt lots of billions out of them. Me think fusion through laser is the the right way till we have new physics what let us go other ways. Me think it is possible to change even older experiments from microwave heating to laser heating, whereas laser heating is possible in different ways.There was another article about economic point of new experiment , I think US is preparing for past gas/oil era(2050 or later).
I mean after Ukraine story gas price increased by 2-3 times and some countries went back to good old coal.There are a lot players who also did this experiment times ago. The point is that one can get a "fusion" also with other configurations if it is put enough energy into it. At the moment the fusion research is imho slowed down cause the existing experiments have to exist for long time to melt lots of billions out of them. Me think fusion through laser is the the right way till we have new physics what let us go other ways. Me think it is possible to change even older experiments from microwave heating to laser heating, whereas laser heating is possible in different ways.
also, our world needs oil and gas REGARDLESS OF CAR or power usage- there is so much need and use for oil and gas, the world will keep demanding it for 20-40 years more- that is a fact. one thing like nuclear fusion probably wont reduce oil and gas need that much - why oil and gas prices so high today when we've had solar and all types of renewable energies for over a decade now?I mean after Ukraine story gas price increased by 2-3 times and some countries went back to good old coal.
It seems new technologies have hard time to even compete with over priced gas and oil,but good thing about experimenting new ideas is that we never know to full extent how much these things are worth it until we reach to necessity point.
By calculating expenses of such plans it will not look like economical success story for now but it's always better to have extra options especially in case of energy.
It reminds me of story of last years of ww2 and Germany with using of jet engines.sometimes our minds are so much fixed in our current standards then we forget valuable lessons of history...
New Recruit
India is a western proxy, an Israeli partner & obedient servant. India is a gutless country that cannot be trusted or relied upon. They never keep their commitments "check out their Gas & oil contracts with Iran since early 1990s", they double crossed Iran at IAEA when they voted against Iran and referred Iran's nuclear file to UNSC resulting in cruelest anti-Iran sanctions with devastating consequences lasting to this day.Iran, India stress need for developing bilateral ties
Tehran, IRNA - Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar have stressed developing all-out cooperation between the two countries.
I was thinking about same issue(only energy) few years back in that time I reached the conclusion that at $ 120-150 barrel of oil we may see natural(no government interference or no subsidies) rise of competitor such as renewables.also, our world needs oil and gas REGARDLESS OF CAR or power usage- there is so much need and use for oil and gas, the world will keep demanding it for 20-40 years more- that is a fact. one thing like nuclear fusion probably wont reduce oil and gas need that much - why oil and gas prices so high today when we've had solar and all types of renewable energies for over a decade now?
There are things that Iran will cooperate with India and things we don't agree.India is a western proxy, an Israeli partner & obedient servant. India is a gutless country that cannot be trusted or relied upon. They never keep their commitments "check out their Gas & oil contracts with Iran since early 1990s", they double crossed Iran at IAEA when they voted against Iran and referred Iran's nuclear file to UNSC resulting in cruelest anti-Iran sanctions with devastating consequences lasting to this day.
Iranians who imagine India as a friendly nation must have their head examined. India has nothing worthy to offer anyone. The idea of developing ties with India is a mere nonsense because there is nothing to develop between the two.
i guess i would choose solar, because its better for the environment, but when will we have those choices in reality?I was thinking about same issue(only energy) few years back in that time I reached the conclusion that at $ 120-150 barrel of oil we may see natural(no government interference or no subsidies) rise of competitor such as renewables.
let's say price barrel of oil is now at $ 120(this number might be wrong but anyway let's agree on a fix number) and wind/solar power (next big competition) are both equally satisfy your needs of energy.
With your $ 120 you could get same amount of energy from solar or oil which one will you choose ?
Well, i was in Munich at MPI when they did Asdex (had a small job there in the IT). And then i followed all the way of Wendelstein 7X. I also followed the way of JET since i was a young boy. Also followed ITER. Decades. The best project by now me think is Wendelstein 7X. Fusion is the future (if not new physics emerge), but for now it is only small stories and "give me more money!".I mean after Ukraine story gas price increased by 2-3 times and some countries went back to good old coal.
It seems new technologies have hard time to even compete with over priced gas and oil,but good thing about experimenting new ideas is that we never know to full extent how much these things are worth it until we reach to necessity point.
By calculating expenses of such plans it will not look like economical success story for now but it's always better to have extra options especially in case of energy.
It reminds me of story of last years of ww2 and Germany with using of jet engines.sometimes our minds are so much fixed in our current standards then we forget valuable lessons of history...