France to be home to first fusion reactor!

[OutHouse]

what do you guys mean by breaking even for enengy input to output? what energy are they putting into a fusion reactor?

yes i know i am stupid so humor me.

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: Citrix
what do you guys mean by breaking even for enengy input to output? what energy are they putting into a fusion reactor?

yes i know i am stupid so humor me.

You have to put energy in to start the fusion reaction. Basically you need to push the atoms together with extreme force to overcome the nuclear forces and get them to "fuse" together to create a different element. Usually this is done with powerful lasers IIRC. Fusion also requires the fuel to be superheated to a plasma state.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: MelikK

Kinda ironic but that's why mankind has had many of its greatest advancements during times of war.

Exactly.

I find it weird when I hear people defend a company that drags its feet, saying that "it's very difficult work, it takes a long time to do these things".

Like you said, if a war broke out and the country really needed something, they'd have it accomplished in very short order.

 

[Juice Box]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg

Originally posted by: Citrix
what do you guys mean by breaking even for enengy input to output? what energy are they putting into a fusion reactor?

yes i know i am stupid so humor me.

You have to put energy in to start the fusion reaction. Basically you need to push the atoms together with extreme force to overcome the nuclear forces and get them to "fuse" together to create a different element. Usually this is done with powerful lasers IIRC. Fusion also requires the fuel to be superheated to a plasma state.

Tell it to people who care....😛

 

[m2kewl]

all in all, it's good news. it's time for us to move to nuclear, long overdue imo.

 

[her209]

Dude, I can't wait until we get Mr. Fusion installed in our cars. Duuuuude....

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

good bye oil problems...50+years from now

 

[Schadenfroh]

Let them build it. Then we can learn from their mistakes when we build ours.

 

[DeMeo]

Originally posted by: shilala
It's obviously being hosted in France because no one cares if that sythole becomes a big smoldering grease spot.
/P&N moment

au contraire! Some of us are praying for this to happen.

 

[Howard]

This is wonderful news!

I can't believe this is happening... 😕

 

[silverpig]

This'll help with the oil problem too because you can then build a fusion plant for the sole purpose of extracting hydrogen from water. Sure it's inefficient, but these plants will be extremely powerful. You can then put that hydrogen into your fuel cell powered car.

Hopefully in 100 years our grand children will be driving fuel cell powered cars and turning on home holocomputers running on fusion produced electricity.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: silverpig
This'll help with the oil problem too because you can then build a fusion plant for the sole purpose of extracting hydrogen from water. Sure it's inefficient, but these plants will be extremely powerful. You can then put that hydrogen into your fuel cell powered car.

Hopefully in 100 years our grand children will be driving fuel cell powered cars and turning on home holocomputers running on fusion produced electricity.

I'd say Fusion is probably the most viable long-term energy solution.

We can't continues using oil/gas forever. Wind, solar, geothermal plants don't produce enough power and are subject to weather and other factors. Fission produces very dangerous waste products.

I agree that the most optimistic vision of the future will have fusion plants generating huge amounts of power, and some of that power being used to split water into hydrogen that will power anything mobile.

 

[robothouse77]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Let them build it. Then we can learn from their mistakes when we build ours.

haha, EXACTLY

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: robothouse77

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Let them build it. Then we can learn from their mistakes when we build ours.

haha, EXACTLY

That assumes we have people who can. Remember that we have decided to surrender leadership in high energy physics. By the time this becomes viable, the current generation of American physicists will be dead, and there won't be a place in the US to train more, or anyone to do so.

That's what we choose.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
This is pretty cool. A while back, I attended an open house that let people see the tokamak fusion test reactor at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Very impressive, looked like something you'd see in a science fiction movie.

The Univ of Wisconsin Physics Dept had (has) a plasma storage ring used for containment experiments. The ring was quite expensive, $15 million I think, maybe just $5 million, but alot in 1980s dollars. The lab was a couple stories tall and one of the building hallways had a glass wall so passersby could watch the progress on the ring's construction, looking down from the second floor. I used to take that route between classes. One day I was watching the technicians (grad students maybe) taking readings off the various probes stuck into the ring. One tech was studying an instrument and looking puzzled. He set down his clipboard, leaned over, and gave the ring a hard kick. He looked back at the instrument and jotted down the new reading.

 

[Triumph]

Given all of the money that they plan to put into this, I wonder what kind of technology leaps we would see if the same investment were made in solar energy receptors and batteries. Fusion sounds nice, but all energy ultimately comes from the sun, and it's the only true renewable resource. Wind, geothermal, oil, hydrogen, are all several steps removed from what was once solar energy.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: Triumph
Given all of the money that they plan to put into this, I wonder what kind of technology leaps we would see if the same investment were made in solar energy receptors and batteries. Fusion sounds nice, but all energy ultimately comes from the sun, and it's the only true renewable resource. Wind, geothermal, oil, hydrogen, are all several steps removed from what was once solar energy.

The irony of the complete and utter BS statement you made in the following paragraph is humorous to me. :beer:🙂:beer:

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Triumph
Given all of the money that they plan to put into this, I wonder what kind of technology leaps we would see if the same investment were made in solar energy receptors and batteries. Fusion sounds nice, but all energy ultimately comes from the sun, and it's the only true renewable resource. Wind, geothermal, oil, hydrogen, are all several steps removed from what was once solar energy.

LMAO. That's retarted. How is the sun renewable? If we shut it off for a while will the fuel grow back?

There is NO SUCH THING as a truly renewable resource, if you take it to the level that its energy comes from the sun which comes from the big bang.

Fusion has no more of an impact on the envrionment than a solar cell does (look in to the externalities involved in actually PRODUCING a cell), and the energy density provided by solar energy is minimal. If you harness all of the light the sun puts off daily, MAYBE you might get what you want. Compare the envrionmental impact of coating the surface of the planet with solar cells with that of even a thousand fusion reactors.

The fact is, the sun casts its energy in all directions, so the vast majority of its energy is being radiated into space. It's like a gnat and a lightbulb. If we can harness all the energy output of a fusion reaction, we get a lot more energy, and we can get fuel not only from earth, but we could import it from across the cosmos. With fusion power and a little ingeuity, we'd have enough energy not only to explore the stars (albeit slowly) but to power our planet until the sun burns out.

Relying on solar energy would not allow us to grow.

 

[Safeway]

Dumb renewable wind farms.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Safeway
Dumb renewable wind farms.

What?

Are you attempting to claim that wind farms are truly renewable?

Again. Take it to the level Triumph is taking it and you have the sun producing thermal differentials which creates wind. The sun will burn out. So, not renewable.

Realisticlly, acting as if we can live forever, just on solar energy and its derivatives is silly. Fusion power is the way of the future. It gives us the energy we need to move forward and the low impact on the environment that people want.

People, we can't wait for an ideal solution. This is about as good as it's gonna get.

 

[supagold]

Fusion power *might* be the way of the future. If it is, were gonna be waiting a long time for it. Don't forget that in order for fusion to be economically viable, it has to be able to make a profit. That means that even if fusion plants generate 500MW surpluses, they might still be too expensive to be viable if they costs billions to build, and millions to operate. I say it's time we made peace with fission reactors, and start building some of the new plant designs.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: supagold
Fusion power *might* be the way of the future. If it is, were gonna be waiting a long time for it. Don't forget that in order for fusion to be economically viable, it has to be able to make a profit. That means that even if fusion plants generate 500MW surpluses, they might still be too expensive to be viable if they costs billions to build, and millions to operate. I say it's time we made peace with fission reactors, and start building some of the new plant designs.

I agree, it's foolish to not build fission reactors (which will still be economically viable for a long time, even if this does pan out) on the assumption that we'll have fusion reactors functional in the operating lifetime of the plants. We've been promised functional fusion plants in less than twenty years for the past forty. In the meantime, we've ceased constructing new fission reactors and have become more and more depentant upon fossil fuels, primarily from foreign sources.

Forget the china syndrome, we're suffering from the osborne syndrome.

 

[ironcrotch]

Originally posted by: her209
Dude, I can't wait until we get Mr. Fusion installed in our cars. Duuuuude....

WOW thats heavy...

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: supagold
Fusion power *might* be the way of the future. If it is, were gonna be waiting a long time for it. Don't forget that in order for fusion to be economically viable, it has to be able to make a profit. That means that even if fusion plants generate 500MW surpluses, they might still be too expensive to be viable if they costs billions to build, and millions to operate. I say it's time we made peace with fission reactors, and start building some of the new plant designs.

We will be doing this relatively soon to bridge the gap until fusion is commercially viable.

Fusion is the future.

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: Triumph
Given all of the money that they plan to put into this, I wonder what kind of technology leaps we would see if the same investment were made in solar energy receptors and batteries. Fusion sounds nice, but all energy ultimately comes from the sun, and it's the only true renewable resource. Wind, geothermal, oil, hydrogen, are all several steps removed from what was once solar energy.

LMAO. That's retarted. How is the sun renewable? If we shut it off for a while will the fuel grow back?

There is NO SUCH THING as a truly renewable resource, if you take it to the level that its energy comes from the sun which comes from the big bang.

Fusion has no more of an impact on the envrionment than a solar cell does (look in to the externalities involved in actually PRODUCING a cell), and the energy density provided by solar energy is minimal. If you harness all of the light the sun puts off daily, MAYBE you might get what you want. Compare the envrionmental impact of coating the surface of the planet with solar cells with that of even a thousand fusion reactors.

The fact is, the sun casts its energy in all directions, so the vast majority of its energy is being radiated into space. It's like a gnat and a lightbulb. If we can harness all the energy output of a fusion reaction, we get a lot more energy, and we can get fuel not only from earth, but we could import it from across the cosmos. With fusion power and a little ingeuity, we'd have enough energy not only to explore the stars (albeit slowly) but to power our planet until the sun burns out.

Relying on solar energy would not allow us to grow.

Ok fine, if 6 billion years isn't good enough to be qualified as "renewable"... You knew what I meant. :roll:

I haven't done the math, I don't know how much energy per square meter the sun puts out, I'm just throwing out a thought, and you didn't answer the question. If solar receptors saw the level of development that they're planning for this fusion reactor, would solar produce MORE or LESS energy? Well, what's the answer?

Jeez, some people are just d1cks.