The next step towards fusion

[Respenus]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,599211,00.html

Frankly, this is great news, one that isn't reported, but in my opinion, should be. It seems that they have made major breakthroughs in the past year(s), far more than expected. I remember reading about ITER one year ago, the article claiming it had more problems than solutions, but now, it looks like step by step, we will come there and with it, an exciting new age for mankind.

[antikristuseke]

Great, if this finaly shuts up crazed environmentalists and equaly crazed anti environmentalists, I'm all for it.

[baggygreen]

Aww, come on anti - we all know that if there weren't people complaining something would be wrong!:lol:

[Q3ark]

This is good news. Every time I read an article like this it makes me think star trek is coming true :rotfl: .

Nuclear fusion for power and hydrogen fuel cells for cars are just around the corner. I bet OPEC are crapping themselves mwu ha ha ha :smug:

[Zachstar]

Heat fusion will not be power positive in any economical form until 2050 at the earliest.

Electrostatic fusion will be online FAR sooner.

[Respenus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_electrostatic_confinement#Critique

Of course I take everything with a grain of salt, so that you won't accuse me of being overly-supportive of the Tokamak. I'd sooner bet my money on this thing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiPER).

[Zachstar]

Using wikipedia as a source for anything fusion is a really bad idea.

Bussard's Fusion idea was recently proven to be possible by a team. The next step is a bigger test reactor to prove ability to go power positive.

Guess who footed the bill? US NAVY

[Fish]

Heat fusion will not be power positive in any economical form until 2050 at the earliest.

Electrostatic fusion will be online FAR sooner.

Let me think,.... thats when I am 110...... :down: ;)

[Zachstar]

Well think about it.

Heat fusion. The same stuff that powers the sun. You are talking about an energy source that has enough raw energy to power civilization many times over.

I have heard that each heat fusion reactor is the same as 50-100 fission reactors that already output unbelievable amounts of energy.

So yes it wont be around in 2010 or 2020 or 2025 or whatever. We are lucky we can even hold a plasma for how long we have so far.

And even if we could generate power in 2020 or so. It will be a many billion dollar monstrosity that requires tons of people to constantly work on it. That is not economical in the least bit.

A heat fusion reactor has to be able to run with less than 50 full time employees at 95 percent or so for 10 years before shutdown to upgrade/repair.

So we got several problems right off the bat.

#1 The walls get radioactive and 10 years of bombardment severely damages materials.

#2 Despite magnetic containment.. The reactor vessel will be constantly roasted.

#3 Huge problems with exaction and delivery of energy.

To combat these will require decades of additional inventions and advancements that will just not happen overnight.