Jump to content

Fusion reactor will make Electricity by 2024


Recommended Posts

Apologies for skimming through it because most of it was explaining the concept and process of which I am well familiar with. So it is possible that I missed it. If so , please give me a time stamp and I will make sure to watch it.

Dont get me wrong. This technology is exiting and I am very interested and excited about it, 

But,. And there is always a but. What abut the economics? Sure you can produce net electricity, but at what cost? How is it going to be competitive with other renewables , Cost per Kilowatt hour? 

IMO, perhaps in the future but not now.  But I hope I am wrong.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ever since I was a kid (there were wild dinosaurs and Raquel Welch) practical fusion power has always been "just 30 years away".

 

If it really does work economically it's going to be a game changer.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So far nobody has been able to sustain a fusion reaction for even 10 seconds . So far they have been able to be net positive in energy output but only if not counting the energy used to start the reaction (which is a millions of times more) .

I very much doubt i ever witness a actual fusion reactor in a commercial large scale energy solution. I am not even sure that is will actually be possible in total.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/7/2023 at 8:48 AM, sirineou said:

Apologies for skimming through it because most of it was explaining the concept and process of which I am well familiar with. So it is possible that I missed it. If so , please give me a time stamp and I will make sure to watch it.

Dont get me wrong. This technology is exiting and I am very interested and excited about it, 

But,. And there is always a but. What abut the economics? Sure you can produce net electricity, but at what cost? How is it going to be competitive with other renewables , Cost per Kilowatt hour? 

IMO, perhaps in the future but not now.  But I hope I am wrong.  

Yes, Fusion generates only heat that is used to boil water and run a generator exactly the same way as coal powered electric generation.

So you need a very large heat exchanger to bring the heat into the water and heat it to a 500 Celsius while all the fusion chambers are all very small and around that heat exchanger are super strong superconductor magnets that must be cooled far below the boiling point of liquid nitrogen.

So even if all technical problems are fixed the technical solution is super expensive and can't be used for commercial mass production of electric.

If we find superconducter that tolerate higher temperatures or find a solution without strong magnetic fields than it might get cheap enough but not with the current approach.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/7/2023 at 9:07 AM, Crossy said:

Ever since I was a kid (there were wild dinosaurs and Raquel Welch) practical fusion power has always been "just 30 years away".

 

If it really does work economically it's going to be a game changer.

 

Yes it is always the same 30 years away since the 1960s

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, h90 said:

Yes it is always the same 30 years away since the 1960s

 

Same era for me, hence my dino and Raquel reference ???? 

 

image.jpeg.6c60f8635a7b2cf08558a60815e01749.jpeg

 

Released in 1966 ???? 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile, millions of us around the world, myself included, are already using fusion power for our home energy requirements.

 

It's just that the energy source is 93 million miles away and the energy transfer system is a little inefficient.

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/7/2023 at 9:07 AM, Crossy said:

Ever since I was a kid (there were wild dinosaurs and Raquel Welch) practical fusion power has always been "just 30 years away".

Meanwhile climate change has always been 10 years away from killing us all. 

Edited by Crossy
Fixed the quote.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Meanwhile climate change has always been 10 years away from killing us all. 

And that 10 years since the late 1990s....Forgot when was it Bangkok will be meters under water? 2015 I think

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Meanwhile, millions of us around the world, myself included, are already using fusion power for our home energy requirements.

 

It's just that the energy source is 93 million miles away and the energy transfer system is a little inefficient.

 

And you can all argue against solar power in Germany in January, but a shopping mall in Thailand which opens 10 or 11 AM is the prime example that makes sense...no expensive grid to transport the solar energy, produced exactly when it is needed....on a cloudy rainy day when the solar doesn't work well the ACs use less power.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...