Another advance towards Nuclear Fusion

Industry Discussions Renewable Energy
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Here is another step forward on the road to Nuclear Fusion: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/california-team-achieve…

One small step of a man, one giant step…

OTFoolish

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The National Ignition Facility is an interesting science experiment, albeit a rather expensive science experiment. From that perspective, I guess it is advancing science to some extent.

Just don’t fool yourself into thinking that this type of laser fusion technology is capable of making a workable power plant. Each laser shot is a one-off, and takes many days, if not weeks, to set up. You just can’t produce electricity with that kind of system, even if they could demonstrate a net energy gain. At least with magnetic confinement, it is theoretically possible to produce a power plant, although the engineering challenges associated with that haven’t even begun to be addressed in a meaningful way.

Nobody is going to listen to me, but they should take all of the research funds going into fusion (including the ITER project in Europe) and put that money to work developing advanced fission. We already know how to do fission, but there are other fuels and other reactor configurations that could make fission even safer, cheaper, while increasing the amounts of available fuels that can be used.

  • Pete
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I previously wrote:
Each laser shot is a one-off, and takes many days, if not weeks, to set up.

Looks like I was inaccurate in the time it takes between shots at the NIF. It only takes several hours to set up each shot, not days or weeks. In FY2015, they performed over 300 shots. Still, one laser shot a day is short of what would be required in a working power plant. I wonder how long it takes to charge up the capacitor banks?

https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/national-ignition-facil…

  • Pete
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Just so you know, waterfell, I am listening to you. We have a much better chance of safe nuclear fission than we do fusion in the foreseable future. Thankfully there are people working hard on this alternative.

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We have a much better chance of safe nuclear fission than we do fusion in the foreseable future. Thankfully there are people working hard on this alternative.

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But will this new nuclear be safe and cheap as solar and wind? Will it be able to be built as fast as solar and wind? We have no reliable information on new nuclear.

Jaak

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