Community Chat

[Porcelain]

Nuclear Fusion, not fission which is what current nuclear power is based on, got one step closer to reality a few weeks ago.

From Bloomberg:

"It sounds thoroughly implausible: a technology that could replicate the chemistry of the stars, unleash nearly unlimited clean energy and safely power the world for centuries.

Yet sustainable nuclear fusion, long hypothesized, took a step closer to reality this month.

Scientists at the National Ignition Facility, part of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, announced that they had produced about 10 quadrillion watts of fusion power after blasting a hydrogen capsule with an array of laser beams. The burst lasted only a fraction of a second. But it offered significant new evidence that harnessing fusion energy could one day be feasible"

Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates and other big tech entrepreneurs have started companies to commercialize the technology. This is really exciting. These advancements have been made possible by new computer modeling abilities. Everything is speeding up, folks. In 5-10 years, our whole world will look completely different than it does today. The time to get ready is now.

Now the next test is to reproduce the results.

From Nature:

"The ultimate test — whether the team can replicate its 8 August success — could come as early as October, say laboratory officials. Meanwhile, scientists are rushing to understand and publish their findings. Because the facility is operating at the scientific edge of what is possible, even slight variations in the manufacture of the target capsule or the tuning of the lasers could cause the system to produce more, or less, energy than the earlier experiment, says Herrmann. “We can’t do the exact same target experiment, because we blew the target up,” he says. But with time, he adds, the science team should be able to repeat and build on this success — and push the facility even further."

[Porcelain]

I'm pleased that no one has showed up to make a bunch of noise about how much they love their mustang or humvee and how they don't believe in any energy sources that don't come from petrochemicals. We are advancing as a species. 

Before long it will be like all this pollution and fighting over oil will be like a bad dream we woke up from.

[GenXmuse]

I've always thought nuclear energy was overlooked when it comes to clean energy so I'm glad there is a renewed interest in it. 

[Snowpuppy]

How much will this raise my energy bills? 

I got a letter from my electric company last month. They offered customers to sign up for their new program! 

If you want 25% of your electric to come from wind, it costs an extra $$. 50% costs $$$ and 75%, well $$$$.

Sign below to accept the new program!

[gardenman]

Fusion power is one of those things that's always ten years or so away. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of hurdles to overcome. You can go back to the fifties and fusion was just ten years away from becoming a reality. Test reactors have been built all over the place trying to create a sustainable fusion reaction, but the containment of the plasma in a magnetic field is not the easiest thing in the world and generating lots of power in a short blink, which is all anyone's done thus far, is great, but you need sustained power over a long time.

Conventional fission nuclear power is here now and works. That's where we should be spending our money and resources.

[Porcelain]

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@GenXmuse wrote:

I've always thought nuclear energy was overlooked when it comes to clean energy so I'm glad there is a renewed interest in it. 

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@GenXmuse Same. Lately I haven't been that concerned about meltdowns at those plants. We have sufficient technology and trained professionals and safety regulations to prevent that. It's just the horrible toxic waste it produces. Fusion has more of the benefits, without that toxic waste dealbreaker.

@Snowpuppy I think whether it will be available to you and whether it will be affordable for you will have a lot to do with where you live. I think in some areas it may be quite affordable, while in other areas you might not even be allowed to consider the option. It's possible you may be forced to make do with what you have. But no one can know the future.

@gardenmanI agree we need to keep innovating nuclear tech to make it more efficient. It's good to keep working on it. I support improvements in nuclear fission technology as well. The cleaner and safer and cheaper we can make it, the better for everyone.

Overall I just know I'm very optimistic about this and many other new technologies right now. What we think are unsolvable problems always feel that way right up until the moment they're suddenly not. Suddenly everything changes. And we are very much in the middle of that right now when it comes to the rapid pace of our technological advancements.

[Icegoddess]

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@Porcelain wrote:

I'm pleased that no one has showed up to make a bunch of noise about how much they love their mustang or humvee and how they don't believe in any energy sources that don't come from petrochemicals. We are advancing as a species. 

Before long it will be like all this pollution and fighting over oil will be like a bad dream we woke up from.

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@Porcelain I'll be one, I love my 1997 Jeep Wrangler.  My issue with completely electric vehicles, however the electricity is made is that they aren't made for long distances.  And you can't pull up to a charging station, even if you can find one where I live, and leave with a fully charged car 5 minutes later.  For those reasons, I prefer hybrid technology.  And there's nothing saying they can't makre a hybrid Jeep Wrangler which I might buy IF 1. They don't mess with the outside design such that it is no longer thr car I love and, 2.  They continue to sell it in a stick shift.  

My husband's last car was a hybrid.  They're great until it's time to get a new battery, and then you're looking at thousands of $$$.

The one thing I can say about my car is, I bought it new, and am still driving the same vehicle, so I know it's not sitting in some automobile graveyard somewhere and I'm not discarding a car every 5 or so years like the average American.  I also continue to use an over 20 year old lawn mower.  

[RainyDayGal]

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@Icegoddess wrote:

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@Porcelain wrote:

I'm pleased that no one has showed up to make a bunch of noise about how much they love their mustang or humvee and how they don't believe in any energy sources that don't come from petrochemicals. We are advancing as a species. 

Before long it will be like all this pollution and fighting over oil will be like a bad dream we woke up from.

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@Porcelain I'll be one, I love my 1997 Jeep Wrangler.  My issue with completely electric vehicles, however the electricity is made is that they aren't made for long distances.  And you can't pull up to a charging station, even if you can find one where I live, and leave with a fully charged car 5 minutes later.  For those reasons, I prefer hybrid technology.  And there's nothing saying they can't makre a hybrid Jeep Wrangler which I might buy IF 1. They don't mess with the outside design such that it is no longer thr car I love and, 2.  They continue to sell it in a stick shift.  

My husband's last car was a hybrid.  They're great until it's time to get a new battery, and then you're looking at thousands of $$$.

The one thing I can say about my car is, I bought it new, and am still driving the same vehicle, so I know it's not sitting in some automobile graveyard somewhere and I'm not discarding a car every 5 or so years like the average American.  I also continue to use an over 20 year old lawn mower.  

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We love our Jeeps!  Husband almost bought a Sahara hybrid.  He changed his mind because of too many unknowns, and we go to the ocean and drive on the beaches so who knows WHAT would happen to the battery and electronics in all that sand and saltwater.  It sure was beautiful though.  He chose a Gladiator instead.

And batteries, cost the driver a lot of money.  They may save on gas, but there are plenty of other costs involved.  And it's not exactly "clean" to dispose of them.

[Porcelain]

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@Icegoddess wrote:

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@Porcelain wrote:

I'm pleased that no one has showed up to make a bunch of noise about how much they love their mustang or humvee and how they don't believe in any energy sources that don't come from petrochemicals. We are advancing as a species. 

Before long it will be like all this pollution and fighting over oil will be like a bad dream we woke up from.

---

@Porcelain I'll be one, I love my 1997 Jeep Wrangler.  My issue with completely electric vehicles, however the electricity is made is that they aren't made for long distances.  And you can't pull up to a charging station, even if you can find one where I live, and leave with a fully charged car 5 minutes later.  For those reasons, I prefer hybrid technology.  And there's nothing saying they can't makre a hybrid Jeep Wrangler which I might buy IF 1. They don't mess with the outside design such that it is no longer thr car I love and, 2.  They continue to sell it in a stick shift.  

My husband's last car was a hybrid.  They're great until it's time to get a new battery, and then you're looking at thousands of $$$.

The one thing I can say about my car is, I bought it new, and am still driving the same vehicle, so I know it's not sitting in some automobile graveyard somewhere and I'm not discarding a car every 5 or so years like the average American.  I also continue to use an over 20 year old lawn mower.  

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@Icegoddess I hear you. I hope you'll be happy with whatever you drive for a very long time. I think electric and hybrid cars will continue to improve, though they may never meet your particular needs. I hope that if you do eventually want a hybrid, the right one is available for you. And that it looks cool and handles really well and has a stick shift.

I think that if/when we develop the ability to power cars from energy derived from nuclear fusion (obviously not directly!), "the last mile" as they call it, the ability to get the energy into the car and store it there and the means to replenish it like they do for electric cars etc, may need to be accomplished differently than the way these things are done now. Or maybe it will be the same and we can work hard to upgrade our power grids, create longer-lasting batteries for longer trips, add more charging stations across the country, and speed up the charging. Those are not impossible goals by any means.

Just because things look one way now, does not mean they will still look that way in 5 years. (LOL and it does not necessarily mean they'll get worse either.)  I believe in our God-given human ability to fix many of the problems we've caused for ourselves. I think we have a lot to look forward to.

[Desert Lily]

I read the article on the nuclear fusion breakthrough when it first came out. The energy lasted only trillionths of a second, but it was still a significant advancement. From the articles that I read about it, I'm optimistic that we'll have this clean energy in the future. But with the major challenges that remain, I'm not as optimistic that it will be available within the next 10 years.