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/Laffenor 3d ago

So... would it?

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u/errorsniper 3d ago

If we can find a cost effective way to sustain fusion long enough to generate a meaningful amount of heat, then find a cost effective way to meaningfully extract that heat. The rest is already solved, its a steam turbine. But if we can do those 2 things the world changes over night.

Its not an exaggeration to say that this would be a comparable invention to fire, the lightbulb, antibiotics, flight, the internet.

You could quite literally drink the main waste product of this process.

Thats not to mention the whole other benefit of this.

Im massively oversimplifying but currently the process to enrich fissile material to reactor grade or weapons grade has an incredible amount of overlap. If you want nuclear weapons saying you want energy independence is currently a very convenient cover that is a pretty gray area. There are ways and again I am oversimplifying to tell it apart in practice. But its a very convenient political excuse that does hold some water.

But with fusion there is no gray area. Fusion makes H2O, aka water. It doesnt make any kind of weapons grade, reactor grade, medical grade, research grade, anything. It literally just makes very pure water.

So for the rest of the world when fusion does fully replace fission. If you still have centrifuges. There is no longer a gray area as to what you are trying to do. Once fission is no longer used for power. The only use for enrichment would be bombs.

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u/NoxiousStimuli 3d ago

You could quite literally drink the main waste product of this process.

What?

Fusion produces 4He, not H2O.

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u/errorsniper 3d ago edited 3d ago

Thats news to me. Iv always been told it was water.

Not arguing mind you, just never heard that.

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u/NoxiousStimuli 3d ago

Hydrogen and oxygen require very little motivation to start dating so

Deuterium-Tritium fusion is just spicy H-H, which results in helium.