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Nuclear fusion reactor in South Korea runs at 100 million degrees C for a record-breaking 48 seconds (www.livescience.com)

submitted 7 months ago by m3t00@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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48 seconds. I predict a glut of helium. balloons for everyone

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[-] whaleross@lemmy.world 41 points 7 months ago

Hot damn! Limitless fusion power is only thirty years away!

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 28 points 7 months ago

Like it has been for the past 30 years (which, I assume, was the joke here.)

If fusion research was funded adequately we'd probably have it by now, but I don't know if it's the energy lobby or what that means that it's chronically underfunded. An actually working fusion reactor design would bring about such an upheaval in the energy markets that I wouldn't be surprised if plutocrats had a hand in making sure the research receives orders of magnitude less money than it should.

[-] malloc@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

Existing energy conglomerates (ie, oil and gas) probably send their army of lobbyists around the world to spread FUD about fusion. Thus minimal funding. 🪦

[-] TheWoozy@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago

Not while fusion is 30 years away. They'll wait until it's closer to 2 years.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Maybe. We all (here) wish fusion power was funded better and understand how useful it could be for humanity if we can make it happen, but ….

yesterday I read about the Stellerator using 3D printed parts
in this thread, someone commented on using ai to drive containment
I’m sure teams must be using the latest materials.

It’s quite possible that we would have always needed the rest of the world to catch up

[-] ours@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

Breakthroughs will bring in investment and then things can accelerate if it ends up viable.

[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 months ago

It's not limitless, you still need fuel. Especially tritium doesn't really occur naturally because of its extremely short half-life, current plans for ITER involve breeding tritium from lithium in the fusion reactor. The closest to limitless power we have is PV.

[-] Gabu@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Tritium is a convenience, not a necessity. If researchers manage to build a functional fusion reactor which captures the energy, we can find substitutes.