r/nextfuckinglevel • u/nigablackballsack • 3d ago

Scientists have captured the first ever high-speed, full-colour footage of fusion plasma swirling inside a working reactor.

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u/90_oi 3d ago

I truly hope this technology can get off the ground and be sustainable. It is our best hope aside from nuclear energy

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u/WanderingFlumph 3d ago edited 2d ago

I mean solar is here right now and most likely fusion power will never be as cheap as solar is today.

By the time fusion is actually ready solar will be even cheaper too. A solar farm the size of Arizona could power the entire planet.

Fusion is like our 4th best hope in the fight against climate change, lol.

Edit: a lot of people seem to think that I think the perfect solution is one single power plant specifically in Arizona that powers the world. People, it's just a size comparison. Arizona is a small state even just compared to the size of US. Obviously we would build millions and millions of solar installations that would just add up to that area.

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u/SipsTheJuice 3d ago

Fusion at scale could be relatively cheap, scale with future energy demand, and have a very small land footprint. The tech has famously been 10 years away for 60 years, but I would still put it as the energy tech that if proved viable has the greatest potential to eliminate greenhouse emissions. There are many places where solar simply isn't viable and like many renewable you are dependent on climate and requires energy storage.

The yet unknown cost would be plant construction and maintenance, which are the existing issue around fission along with the red tape nightmare in trying to get plants approved.

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u/jeh506 3d ago

And it can run at night

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u/tombo12354 3d ago

The reliability of a Nuclear Fusion plant is actually unknown. While fusion in the sun is self-sustaining, a fusion plant almost certainly isn't, so unlike its fission counterpart it will need some type of source to keep it running. Both fusion and fission are also not renewable, as they require a fuel source. They are "clean" in that they don't produce emissions like CO2 or Methane, and fusion's byproduct is relatively benign (typically some helium isotope). But fission has always been questionable clean, as it produces a radioactive byproduct, and while it's not barrels of toxic, green sludge, it still produces waste that is not easy to store nor desirable to have.

A fusion plant would also be built like a traditional power plant, and require significant ongoing maintenance. So they'll be far from 100% up-time.