Fusion Energy
 

Major advancement in Fusion energy...If you can believe any of this.....

China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak smashes fusion confinement record – Physics World

If anyone's going to succeed it will be the Chinese. They think differently, whereas we just seem to pour more and more money into the same methodology, with only minor incremental improvements over the decades.

The one in France ($28bn) has recently overtaken China, but I suspect that will be short-lived.

When it comes EV's will quickly be obsolete

With fusion power you can synthesize unlimited hydrocarbons at near zero energy costs. The feed stock for making gasoline/diesel/Jet-A is just ocean water. Cracking CH is quite expensive still...The Pearl GTL Plant in Qatar was costly. Imagine creating clean diesel for 20 cents a gallon from H2O and CO2.

No matter what the solution is to endless energy there are countries investing billion. The independence a country would have, not having to rely on other countries for their energy supply would be huge. This does give countries like China an advantage over the U.S., since their motivation relies on where the government wants their country to be in the future. While the U.S. in most cases motivation is profit based.

I do not see how you have come to that conclusion. There are number of reasons that would lead me to believe just the opposite. The main issue is the availability of charging stations and battery capability. I own an Ionic 6, when fully charged I get over 300 miles and car companies are investing to improve that distance. As far as charging stations the investment in putting up a charging station is much less than putting a gas station in place and they can be put almost anywhere. Besides finding charging stations at some gas stations, I have found them at most Walmart, Costco, and you can charge at home while you're sleeping. The main goal is to find a profit motivation, if states see a profit in it, you will find charging station at every rest stop on every highway in America.

When you can strip hydrogen from water to burn why would you want a car with, essentially, an extension cord? My question is why are we not creating and burning hydrogen in situ now? We have the means.

I've been waiting for this technology for a long time. I thought it'd be mainstream by 2000, but still waiting and optimistic!...

Exactly, you know how the U.S functions. Greed and money

Profit, yes. But also lobbyists and tree huggers. China does not tolerate either.

Also check out Commonwealth Fusion Systems in the Boston area.

Fusion power is in the future
 

The old mantra about useable fusion is, “Fusion power is ten years in the future, and always will be.”

They also said in the 21st century we would be driving flying cars... well it's the 21st century and we're still on the ground...

Fusion produces no net energy.
 

The fusion reactor ran for about 18 minutes versus the old record of about 7 seconds. The advance was achieved by doubling the input power. Fusion reactors require vastly more power input than output. Fission reactors run for years with no input power and produce no “greenhouse gas.”

While fusion energy production is a lovely idea and will be pursued, fission is now. The main obstacles to fission power are irrational fear and litigation.

It's kind of a running joke. Fusion is always only 20 years away. I mentioned this thread to my son who is graduating from Tennessee in May with a degree in Nuclear Engineering (and if I may brag for a second, he'll be suma cum laude). Starts his PhD program almost immediately. Anyway, he looked at the article and said, "Interesting. I haven't taken much stock in these current 'breakthroughs' because they are still just running for 20 minutes or something. I have been seeing a lot of startups getting funding for demonstrating their design in a couple of years. Which seems optimistic."

The newer fission technologies (molten salt reactors, SMRs, etc) are the more practical exciting advances. Many demonstration units currently under development and/or construction. Plus the hydrogen generation plants being developed as an offshoot (and previously mentioned). Toyota seems to be the major manufacturer who is placing bets on hydrogen. I think they'll win that bet.

That was VERY optimistic! When I was at GA Tech in the late 70s (45 years ago), the fusion engineers said it was 35 years away," and it still is! Understand these research facilities are very finely tuned machines that are extremely expensive to build. On a commercial scale, it would be massively more expensive, then there's regulation, and NIMBY. NIMBY because fusion is how a thermonuclear bomb (H-bomb) works, so tell someone you're going to put one in their back yard!!

No need for fusion when we already have distributed solar with batteries.

I hope that's a joke

I know I laughed.

Kind of like the perpetual motion machine, that can do work indefinitely without an external energy source. The obvious problem is it would violate the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

C'mon. Never let a few laws of physics get in the way of somebody's "opinion" :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Nope. Works great!

No comment

Are you sure?

Any honest and factual response would earn me a vacation

As they continue to build coal fired plants.

Fusions time has not yet come

I guess that they did NOT say WHEN in the 21st century.

Most of my driving is within a 200-mile range, I haven't been to a gas station in months. My car charges in a few hours while I sleep and it's ready for me in the morning. Even though hydrogen is cleaner for the environment than ICE and most likely EVs you still like gas have to go to a designated area to refuel. And these hydrogen station will not be manufacturing the hydrogen this will be truck in. You see EVs are better than ICE, when it comes to air pollution, and they also offer convenance. And no, I do not have an extension cord from my house to the car when I'm on the road.

What about the materials going into an EV? The weight of an EV is damaging to roads.

Since they do not pay taxes on the gas they use the rest of us have to pay more.

Nor a sense of self-deprecating humor, apparently.

The function of a business it to make money, and so are accused of greed, the function of an elected government is to give people what they want, good , bad, profound or stupid .

Absolutely! Another benefit to an EV! Don't forget they're cleaner on the environment vs a gas car (who pays for my health issues from all those fumes and particulates from burning gas?). Also, there's zero maintenance on an EV.

But back to fusion, it's a long ways off, get some batteries and some solar, you'll be fine.

I don't think fusion energy is even possible. I hope I am wrong.

Hydrogen is a viable alternative to a hydrocarbon economy but requires a pressurized vessel and pipeline. It is also extremely volatile.

Nothing is better than hydrocarbons for energy density and safety. An A380 can carry 600 people 10,000 miles with 85,000 gallons of Jet-A. You want to use a battery in an A380? It would be FAR too heavy to even get off the ground. Hydrocarbons are here to stay forever unless we all want to go back to living in caves...The few who actually survive, that is. Hydrocarbon oxidation also releases sequestered H2O and CO2 which are critical for biological life on Earth...Burning gasoline/diesel/jet-A makes plants green and yummy for animals that Sapiens eat.

China is building 500 nuclear fission power plants...They also have a lot of coal.

There are many advantages to BEV including quiet, smooth and lower cost electric operation and near-zero maintenance but realize that you are not feeding the plants as you drive like ICE vehicles do...Don't call yourselves "Green".

All living organisms are "greedy"....The ones that were not were Darwin'ed out of existence. Free-market competition keeps prices low and quality/quantity high. USA have laws that virtually outlaws innovation and productive enterprise...China does not.

Here is a basic lecture on 4th gen fission reactors SMR and LMR (basically what China is building).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89KYlEzW5_M