nuclear fusion power

[p.t.b.d]

Has anyone ever looked into this?
Its actually amazing how criminally under looked this process is seeing how it is basically the only way the human race could continue living with power.
Its like nuclear power but with no actual waste.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1080616947#

[DRTY]

Nuclear fusion is amazing. They should throw way more funding at it.

[p.t.b.d]

Nuclear fusion is amazing. They should throw way more funding at it.

I've decided that once I actually get a proper job i'm going to put my money towards research towards it

[NilsFG]

Nuclear fusion is amazing. They should throw way more funding at it.

I've decided that once I actually get a proper job i'm going to put my money towards research towards it

The research actually gets quite a lot of money...

And there are results. We already are able to start the process of nuclear fusion! There even are test-reactors for nuclear fusion.
Still, we're not able to get energy out of it since we can't make it to the break-even (the point from where the energy needed to maintain the reaction is getting smaller than the energy coming out of the reaction).

[2manynoobs]

Nuclear fusion is amazing. They should throw way more funding at it.

I've decided that once I actually get a proper job i'm going to put my money towards research towards it

The research actually gets quite a lot of money...

And there are results. We already are able to start the process of nuclear fusion! There even are test-reactors for nuclear fusion.
Still, we're not able to get energy out of it since we can't make it to the break-even (the point from where the energy needed to maintain the reaction is getting smaller than the energy coming out of the reaction).

nerd. no seriously that's nice

[p.t.b.d]

Nuclear fusion is amazing. They should throw way more funding at it.

I've decided that once I actually get a proper job i'm going to put my money towards research towards it

The research actually gets quite a lot of money...

And there are results. We already are able to start the process of nuclear fusion! There even are test-reactors for nuclear fusion.
Still, we're not able to get energy out of it since we can't make it to the break-even (the point from where the energy needed to maintain the reaction is getting smaller than the energy coming out of the reaction).

nerd. no seriously that's nice

only a matter of years till its possible though
cheap power

[DRTY]

I thought the problem was just not being able to make the process happen for longer than an instant?

Or is that just another way of saying what you said?

[NilsFG]

I thought the problem was just not being able to make the process happen for longer than an instant?

Or is that just another way of saying what you said?

Actually it's quite the same.

The energy needed to start & maintain the reaction is quite overwhelming, you need to recreate the pressure and the temperature of the sun's core (15 million degrees Celsius if I'm right).
Only if we can bring the reaction to the break-even we'll be able to do something with it. Now we can only maintain the reaction for a few seconds without much results really.

All research now goes to building a reactor that can easily get to the break-even.

Also the ultimate solution would be "cold" fusion. This is nuclear fusion that doesn't need extreme temperature and pressure but can still give lots of energy, but I don't think we even know if it's possible.

[alien pimp]

the sun is a source of energy hugely bigger than our needs and it's free

[hugh]

Do hydrogen cells not work on some sort of basis of fusion?
I know that 5-10 years we will be starting to use these babies to power most of our devices - all you need is water, and they have the sort of potential to power your phone for a month straight before you would have to recharge.

[p.t.b.d]

the sun is a source of energy hugely bigger than our needs and it's free

but the amount of power you can get from it is near nothing compared to how much we can get from fusion
the amount of cheap energy we can get is limitless

[magma]

Nuclear fusion is amazing. They should throw way more funding at it.

I've decided that once I actually get a proper job i'm going to put my money towards research towards it

The research actually gets quite a lot of money...

And there are results. We already are able to start the process of nuclear fusion! There even are test-reactors for nuclear fusion.
Still, we're not able to get energy out of it since we can't make it to the break-even (the point from where the energy needed to maintain the reaction is getting smaller than the energy coming out of the reaction).

Yeah, there are some good docs available on it... one of my favourites (as always) was a Horizon - Can We Make A Star On Earth? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hr6bk

Also, it's really worth checking out the "Moon For Sale" episode (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/program ... /moonsale/) which goes into a lot of the longevitiy problems that people have with fusion. The process itself works, it's just that we can't run reactors long enough for them to actually become profitable. That may all change if we could get a supply of Helium-3........ from the Moon.

Hugh: Fuel cells are different, but great ways to get small amounts of power relatively cleanly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell

the sun is a source of energy hugely bigger than our needs and it's free

This too. There are some interesting plans around to cover a lot of uninhabitable desert areas of Africa with solar panels. Theories suggest that you could satisfy almost all of Europe's power needs from the Sahara. (Of course, Africa should probably get first dibs on that!!)

My favourite bit of "innovation" recently was that Heliostat tower near Seville... clean, efficient and even beautiful:

[alien pimp]

the sun is a source of energy hugely bigger than our needs and it's free

but the amount of power you can get from it is near nothing compared to how much we can get from fusion
the amount of cheap energy we can get is limitless

so we can't cheaply harvest solar energy but we can do that fusion?

[2manynoobs]

what difference does it make? as long as it's cheap and electricity

[alien pimp]

what difference does it make? as long as it's cheap and electricity

one is available since decades and one is in research

[NilsFG]

what difference does it make? as long as it's cheap and electricity

one is available since decades and one is in research

Both still in research.

If you want to replace all current powerplants with solar power plants we're gonna need some heavy duty solar panels.

[hugh]

cheers mag
At the moment the efficiency of solar panels is pretty low and not really a viable source of constant energy.
However, the raw power of the sun can be shown in this vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tt7RG3UR4c

[p.t.b.d]

what difference does it make? as long as it's cheap and electricity

one is available since decades and one is in research

Both still in research.

If you want to replace all current powerplants with solar power plants we're gonna need some heavy duty solar panels.

to power the earth apparently you need about the size of englands worth of solar panels or some other ridiculous amount

[alien pimp]

what difference does it make? as long as it's cheap and electricity

one is available since decades and one is in research

Both still in research.

If you want to replace all current powerplants with solar power plants we're gonna need some heavy duty solar panels.

so you're telling me having efficient solar panels or another technology in the hottest and the least populated areas is as much of a deal as the fusion?
mad!
i thought we could've achieved that 30 years ago

[magma]

A bit more on the "solar panels in the Sahara" that I mentioned above:

http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/200 ... re-europe/

to power the earth apparently you need about the size of englands worth of solar panels or some other ridiculous amount

England's really not very big compared to the Sahara.

It's a lot of work, but if you consider the amount of work that goes into oil and coal prospecting, drilling, mining and industrial energy creation, it's not a huge ask. The main problem is getting all of the various governments that own the land to agree to using it for this.

As ever, diplomacy holds up advancement.... perhaps if we were still in colonial times, we'd have a "North African Company" that could go and sort it out at like the East India Company did with tea and indigo, but that wouldn't be very nice.