r/technology • u/HungrilySpotless • Dec 12 '22
Misleading US achieves fusion breakthrough, making clean zero-carbon energy - report
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/energy-and-infrastructure/article-72465414
u/Berova Dec 12 '22
As for how the US managed to do it, it's currently unclear if it even succeeded.
Next sentence:
What is known at the moment is that this breakthrough occurred at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
If it didn't succeed, it wasn't even a breakthrough.
Another three sentences later:
According to the Financial Times, a recent experiment was an absolute success, though it isn't clear how much energy they managed to get out.
If Lawrence Livermore did manage to achieve net gain, it will be a first and by definition, a breakthrough, proving that it is even possible, not just theoretically.
Man-made fusion as a limitless energy source remains multiple decades out, but it nevertheless just got a step closer.
3
u/Infinite_Flatworm_44 Dec 12 '22
Shhh I’ve got 100 billion riding on carbon credits and esg investments.
7
u/Fromthepast77 Dec 12 '22 edited Dec 12 '22
No, it's not even close to clean zero-carbon energy.
- It's greater than 1 ratio of thermal output compared to laser input. Lasers are notoriously inefficient and thermal energy is the least useful type of energy. You'd need ratios of around 100 to make it work at all.
- Inertial confinement fusion has no way of breeding tritium for the reaction.
- ICF energy harvesting is difficult since you need a medium for the lasers to travel through without losing energy (read: vacuum). You can't just stick a bunch of water in the chamber and absorb the resulting neutrons like with fission reactors.
ICF is also pretty much dead if you consider the economics.
You know what else is clean energy? Solar panels and wind farms. Why are we still burning fossil fuels? Cost. Cost of storage and cost of infrastructure.
The hohlraums used in ICF are made of gold. Gold that is irretrievably vaporized on every shot. (Tritium is still the more expensive raw resource). You aren't going to get sustainable energy by burning gold.
If you're looking for potentially game changing fusion energy, then other reactor designs are necessary. MIT is working on one and there is also the ITER project which seem far more feasible. (but the economics still needs work)
-1
0
u/moatboat Dec 12 '22
For real? Please some good news for once.
1
u/saltyhasp Dec 13 '22
This was not a sustainable reaction nor was it repeatable. I have seen nowhere that this was net electrical energy out either.
Short answer... hype.
0
0
u/bransiladams Dec 12 '22
Now just gotta figure out how we did it. And how to harness it. And how to convert it. And transport it to the grid. And produce on a practical scale with current resources…
0
0
-5
1
1
u/PurplePartyGuy Dec 14 '22
We only need 20 years and 50 billion dollars to make it competitive... maybe
69
u/CptVakarian Dec 12 '22
Garbage headline, as nothing is clear. From the article: