I really hate how so many of these articles feel like they need to dumb it down with this “artificial sun” imagery. It feels so condescending. I’d rather learn more about the latest progress with nuclear fusion
article didn't say anything. How does denser plasma achieve higher temperatures or other benefits? What advances did their denser plasma produce?
Meanwhile USA is stealing Venezuelan oil. Good job everbody. 👍
Just a few years ago US labs were the first to generate more power than they put into a fusion reactor, it was one of the most important breakthroughs to date in fusion.
Even under the shitheap Trump, the US is continuing to research into fusion and building stellarators such as Infinity 1 in Tennessee.
Europe likewise is leading breakthroughs such as with Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany lasting for 43 seconds. This is being improved with the new Proxima Alpha stellarator being built.
China’s EAST reactor had a breakthrough when they achieved 1,000 seconds last year. While Europes recent ITER tokamak should be achieving its first plasma in the coming years.
Fusion is a global effort, and scientists are benefiting from the works being put in elsewhere. Stellarators and Tokamak are both breaking new grounds each year, and each has their own pros and cons.
Don’t fall for any propaganda trying to claim anyone is “winning”.
oil, coal and nuclear are clearly not winning.
we could solve the worlds energy problems today but they'd never be applied simply because oil exists. its literally why the US just attacked venezuela. They could have built another reactor or windmills or whatever the fuck else they feel they need if energy was the reason. but energy has nothing to do with energy and all to do with being a natural monopoly that's making a small group of people quite wealthy.
God, I wonder if we could fund a next gen fission plant with what we already spent on Venezuela
Yes but those are not fusion. Fusion is the 'holy-grail' of energy technology. It is a long term goal that we must work towards. It's a problem of science.
For now renewables are the cheapest, quickest, and best method we have. They should be receiving all the money wasted on those 3 methods you've mentioned above. That's a problem of politics.
We easily have the means to achieve both, we are hamstrung by shortsighted corporate interests and yes this applies to China as well.
It doesn't matter if the people with the war machines are the ones who control the grids,lines,pipes,etc.
The 'holy grail' will most likely result in further top down dominance. As god king tyrants demonstrate their continued uselessness to humanity by creating more powerful and destructive weapons and hoarding the infinite power supply for their own.
Passenger vehicles and homes and most businesses could be owed by solar and wind, but oil will still be used for quite a while for cargo shipping and commercial trucks and things like tires. We could use a lot less, but oil is going to hang around for quite a while. Passenger vehicles account for about 25% of oil used.
I'm not a fan of China (government)... at all. But when I check all the technological breakthrough they are getting in these last years while the US was inflating his fucking ai-bubble. Objectively, they are getting so far ahead is not even funny. At least Europe is on a good track themself.
But when China is running a huge energy surplus with new solar, wind, and battery technology, we'll still have the most oil! facepalm.
Yea they are probably quite ahead in about %80 of critical tech. Not only that but they also seem to be investing quite alot in sustainable tech, public transport tech, medicine etc. I wouldn't be surprised at all if center of attraction for science shifts from US to China in near future.
It already has. The West doesn't like to advertise that though.
Makes me sad I got the oppressive dictatorship that also wants me to suffer instead of pretending to give me good stuff
ESPECIALLY when statistically China would be way more likely to be born in
I'm no China expert but I lived In South China for a while between 2016 and 2024. The Chinese people I know are mostly hardworking, very motivated to succeed, and well capitalized. In their major cities you might be surprised to learn normal guys who earn half what you do are living a higher quality of life than you are, in terms of access to technology.
Their government is no doubt using uncouth methods to give their country unfair advantages. They don't play well with others.
But holy shit there is one thing this Chinese government is doing well: effectively driving growth with targeted investments in the economy. They have been focused on that one mission consistently for a long time.
While democracies fuck around trying to decide if they should tax themselves to build public transportation, China installs 10 new ultrafast subway lines in just a few years in every big city. Covers the country in a network of high-speed rail. Drives the price of shipping goods around the country to almost nothing.
A kind of monoparty like China has is very likely a net negative when we look at world history, but for moments of time, if it's the right one, amazing things can happen.
In sum, these guys at EAST got the Greenwald limit elevated in their tokamak, which indirectly influences the Lawson criterion: nTTau, density * time at said density * plasma energy released. Lawson is the master finish line for measuring whether a fusion system can actually make more power than it consumes.
To date, when you cross the Greenwald limit, the man/woman in the operators seat should expect the plasma inside the device to become uncontrollable, hurting the reactor by touching the walls or instruments inside, a so-called "disruption". Only a few topologies like the stellerator can exceed the limit, and so far, only by 5x.
But here we have a way to exceed the limit in the much more researched tokamak. This research has positive impact for all but the weirdest/niche fusion devices.
Only 75 more years to go!
Practical power production through nuclear fusion still requires significant developments for it to be realised at scale, though several startups are already planning to deliver it within the next few years.
US-based Helion Energy secured the world’s first purchase agreement for nuclear fusion energy in 2023, promising to provide 50MW of fusion power to Microsoft by 2028.
I mean, time will tell. But that seems a bit sooner than 2100.
Unlike this captain positivity's social life, fusion is making some sizable strides forward in short order.
I design diagnostics going into systems like these, there's a lot of positive news coming our way.
Helion's gonna have some problems though.
Is it only me that had the C&C Generals Nuke Cannon tagline going off in their heads saying BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN in a deliberate voice and a heavy Chinese accent?
Hey, is that game any good? I only every did Tiberian Sun and RA2, is it worth getting into?
Yeah but good luck getting it working reliably on modern Windows. Runs great on Linux. It's probably the last truly great C&C game, if you ask me. C&C 3 was alright too I guess...
If China has managed to do something that scientists genuinely thought was impossible why are there several nuclear fusion research facilities all over the planet? If it's impossible that seems like a bad use of resources.
I think maybe that scientists thought it was entirely possible, and that's why they were trying to do it.
Scientist: "Scientific discoveries are meaningless when taken out of context."
Newspaper: "Scientist confirms that scientific discoveries are meaningless."
This diagram shows the LCOE (levelized cost of electricity) for various technologies - i.e. how much does one kWh of electricity cost if you divide the total number of generated kWh by the total cost of the power plant.
"utility-scale solar" means large-scale flat-area solar parks
But will Fusion ever be cheaper than solar?
I doubt it; It's not only about technology costs but also about advantages like decentralization. If you can generate your own electricity in your own back-yard, you're much more independent than if you're dependent on large-scale fusion power. Because that will necessarily be very large-scale and centralized because nobody can set up a fusion reactor in their own back yard.
but isnt it being centralized being the point? I have the (probably not so rare) tin foil theory that big energy spends a lot of money to dampen solar and other decentralized power generation. As a politician you have to ask yourself, do I get nice packages from big energy for not looking so closely when another forest is turned into a hole or do I hope that 20000 random people try to bribe me for something. In terms of money gain for a few big power plant is double plus good. Boring solar might be better for all of us, the rest, but not for the guys calling the shots. This all assumes of course that there is no empathy at all in the local legislation
That's why I always want to crowdsource corruption. Everybody who wants something gives 3 Euro/Dollar/Whatever and we just carry those cash suitcases to the morons in charge. What big companies can do, we can do!
But will Fusion ever be cheaper than solar?
Eventually. But, much like traditional fission power, you'll need a very large and complex piece of infrastructure to deliver it.
You won't be able to put a fusion plant in your basement like you can put solar on your roof.
Solar has the problem of storage. You need something like a generator to tide those in-between times. Also you need the signal to be a clean 60 hz and solar apparently isn't very good at keeping the power clean.
*Slaps on top of fusion reactor*
"You can boil so much water with this."
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
