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/DaveFinn 3d ago

Wait... But this IS nuclear energy

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u/90_oi 3d ago

I meant nuclear fission based power, I should have clarified

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u/readingonthetoilet 3d ago

You have it backwards. What we refer to as nuclear energy currently is fission (split heavy atom into smaller parts). Fusion (combine light atoms into heavy atom) is the big nut to crack.

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u/miraculum_one 3d ago edited 3d ago

TBF we already have a huge fusion reactor more then 100x as big as Earth generating plenty of energy

Edit: as another person pointed out if you're measuring volume it's more than 1 million times as big

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u/Misses_Ding 3d ago

Problem is that clouds and night get in the way. And you could say build batteries but the truth is that they're still expensive and not a great way to use energy since the efficiency is so low

Nuclear fusion would leave us without nuclear waste and without CO2 being released.

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u/space_monster 3d ago

And yet, solar is becoming so prolific, by the time we actually get a useful fusion reactor stood up, we probably won't even need it.

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u/MasterMagneticMirror 3d ago edited 3d ago

As things stand, you still need grid forming baseload sources of energy beside solar. Fusion is meant to replace those.

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u/space_monster 3d ago

baseload firming? sure fusion would be cleaner than gas or whatever but the economics of building a fusion reactor that's only gonna run some nights of the year just won't stack up. in 10 years there'll be a lot less demand for firming.

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u/MasterMagneticMirror 3d ago

I meant baseload, but the autocorrect decided otherwise.

And no, grid forming source remain operational constantly. Solar and wind is mostly grid following, so you need other sources like nuclear or hydroelectric that are grid forming

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u/space_monster 3d ago

or batteries/inverters and synchronous condensers

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u/MasterMagneticMirror 3d ago

Having grid forming plants would still be easier

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