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Nuclear Fusion: Research & Development

The total 'energy returned over energy invested' EROEI is still negative, I believe; these fusion plants won't be commercially viable until the EROEI is positive for the entire lifetime of the plant, from construction to disposal. We are still a long way from that.
 
I seems the TV News stories claim they have captured more energy than used.

But the real “ big news “ is that it runs on what makes up 80 % of the universe which is simple hydrogen or what water is made out of H2O.

This is unlimited energy for humans.
 
Not impressed yet.

Sounds like something off of Tomorrows World.
 
Sounds like something off of Tomorrows World.
Nah - if it was off 'Tomorrows World', as soon as they brought it to market you'd have Maggie Philbin smearing jam on it to show that it still works, then it won't work.
 
Oh, so that's how it works.

You smear jam on each an every Hydrogen molecule? So they stick together an form Helium??

(Raspberry or apricot??)

I've been dong it wrong all along.
 
A notable step towards Nuclear Fusion was announced today.

The result of experiments at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California.
For the first time, fusion produced more energy given out than put in.

Though there is still the matter of the energy needed to produce the laser that was fired at the atoms, which tips the balance back to "more in in than out."

But in theory at least, if enough fusion reactions took place, they'd eventually produce enough energy to power lasers, which in turn fire at atoms, and produce more energy to power lasers and so on.
 
"more in than out."
<resisting urge to make the obvious fnarr-fnarr joke>

Is it the case that, with enough time, every single thread will either become littered with innuendo, or descend into talk about 'the Nazis'?
 
The total 'energy returned over energy invested' EROEI is still negative, I believe; these fusion plants won't be commercially viable until the EROEI is positive for the entire lifetime of the plant, from construction to disposal. We are still a long way from that.
Yes. The scientist interviewed on BBC radio earlier didn't expect to see commercial amounts of energy created from this process until at least 2050.
 
TLDR = They found a way to reduce the distance that is needed between the hot stuff and the business parts.

New discovery points the way to more compact fusion power plants.
A magnetic cage keeps the more than 100 million degree Celsius hot plasmas in nuclear fusion devices at a distance from the vessel wall so that they do not melt. Now researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) have found a way to significantly reduce this distance. This could make it possible to build smaller and cheaper fusion reactors for energy production.
https://phys.org/news/2023-04-discovery-compact-fusion-power.html
 
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