So by 2035? A 20 year prediction has been the norm. Maybe we have made progress as its15 years until.
I Have Fears Regarding This New Science Venture- I Know Only 4grms OfSo, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is there some reason we want humanity to stick around for millions of years?
I Have Fears Regarding This New Science Venture- I Know Only 4grms Of
Fuel Will Only Be Used At Any One Time- I Can Only Hope The Mathematicians & Physicists - Have Exhausted All There Theories... Is It Possible We May Be Trying To Replicate The Sun & It's Awesome Powers- BE Careful We Do NOT Become The Next Sun In The Cosmos- I Believe More Intensive Research Is Needed Before The World Commits To This- { Let Us Not Forget } This Is A Science Project With One Thing We All Have In Common- The Need For Scientific Stardom & MONEY...
Not Saying No. Just Allow The Greatest Minds Throughout The World To Give A Second Opinion- MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. Am I The Only One Who Cares- The Devil Will Or Maybe Be Rubbing His Hands In Wait- let us Be Sensible Humans & Give This Project Just A Little More Scrutiny- Our Existence May Rely/Depend Upon It. I'm Not Being Alarmist- Chernobyl Was Described As SAFE-
The first efficient nuclear fusion reactor might also be here as soon as 3025, are you buying stock in 4 years from now
Is there some reason we want humanity to stick around for millions of years?
I don't think so.....nuclear fusion occurs in conditions that are so extreme
Didn't the Princeton Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor give a little better than break-even energy-wise. I seem to recall that from about 25 years ago. It was big news at the time, and many thought they were headed in the right direction. It would seem they contained the fusion temperature and pressure if they did indeed reach break-even. And fusion occurs in the Sun at about 15 million K, not tens of millions, but that seems trivial compared to the cumulative issues you bring up.
I did not get the impression that the SPARC tokamak was likely to be successful. Much more sophisticated than cold fusion, but the smaller you make it, the harder it should be to form and maintain the conditions for fusion .
Is the ultra high pressure an absolute, and cannot be moderated some how? That is a lot of pressure, but it, along with temperature must be contained by the mag field, which apparently it was in Princeton. You certainly seem to know a lot about it. Are you suggesting that all those high-brows spending billions on fusion have been wasting their time (and our money) all these years on something that could never work?
An important factor to remember is that fusion is a statistical phenomena. Room temperature fusion at normal pressures is possible, but statistically vanishingly small. The Pons experiment in cold fusion may have indeed succeeded in generating a few events, but so few that it was insignificant. The success of fusion increases with temperature, and more significantly with density. And achieving density requires immense pressure. I believe that significant amounts of fusion can only occur in fully degenerate matter, and full degeneracy only occurs at astrophysical pressures, for example in the gravitational field of a white dwarf star. Atomic nuclei are very tiny, and they need to be very close for appreciable fusion events to occur.
Magnetic fields that can maintain the pressure necessary for degeneracy must be immense and have never been generated for any appreciable time in a lab. A magnet generating such a field would self-destruct because conventional materials do not have the strength to resist.
Finally there is the problem of gamma ray cooling. Plasma at fusion temperatures is far beyond white hot, ultraviolet hot, x-ray hot. It radiates gamma rays, which penetrate any conventional insulation or mirror. So the plasma would radiate away the tremendous energy contained in the plasma very rapidly and cool down very rapidly.
So, the practical engineering problems of maintaining steady state fusion are very difficult. What fusion engineers are experimenting with seems to be the geometry of the fusing plasma. By controlling the shape and flow of fusing plasma, perhaps a self-generated magnetic field can be created. Plasma is electrically conductive, and a flow of plasma has an intrinsic magnetic field. A flow of protons, positive charges can be superconducting at very high temperatures, it is thought that such a flow is responsible for the enormous magnetic fields of magnetar neutron stars. Just as we can create a given magnetic field by controlling the shape of a conductor, perhaps by shaping the flow of plasma we can create the necessary magnetic field.
Likewise, just as we can focus a beam of light, we may be able to focus the emission of gamma rays from the plasma, perhaps using such focussed gamma rays to heat up another area of the plasma.
Workers have been experimenting on controlled fusion since the 1950s, progress has been made in very tiny steps; i do not believe that we can expect to see a practical fusion power source anytime soon.
This is an interesting and increasingly common response to advancing technology. Fear of the unknown. A desire for Mankind to go quietly into the background. Well, some of us are not interested in just sitting around drinking tea and knitting all day. I would love for Humanity to exist for millions of years, conquering other planets, spreading our empire to every corner of the galaxy. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It's called youthful vigor, optimism and robustness.So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is there some reason we want humanity to stick around for millions of years?
Remember back in 400,000 BC when Gronk said he invented a wheel and it didn't work? Gee, it's a good thing HUMANS DIDN'T GIVE UP ON THE IDEA. So what is your point? Something didn't work, so it'll never work? You must be really fun at parties, negative boy.True story. As a senior US Customs officer, I visited an internationally known company in San Diego as part of an importation of a vast, multi-million dollar electric power generating unit. It was explained that this power generator will generate electricity for experimental purposes - the local power supply had not this ability, *You know what nuclear fission is - A-bombs and all. Well, this is fusion, capturing the energy released by combining two atoms into one. The energy from a cup of coffee, captured by this process, could power all of California - even the entire West Coast." Astounded by this, I asked when this might be active. "A decade, maybe two" was the reply. This was in the late 70s.
This is an interesting and increasingly common response to advancing technology. Fear of the unknown. A desire for Mankind to go quietly into the background. Well, some of us are not interested in just sitting around drinking tea and knitting all day. I would love for Humanity to exist for millions of years, conquering other planets, spreading our empire to every corner of the galaxy. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It's called youthful vigor, optimism and robustness.
Why do you annoyingly capitalize the first letter of all your words? That in itself makes your thought processes suspect. NO worry about a hydrogen fusion reactor blowing up. It might be considered a major victory though, as we have got nothing out of any of them so far. Re: "A little more scrutiny", they have been scrutinizing the process for about 80 years now and have come up with nothing. Nothing but a lot of research money, which has been totally wasted. (my money and yours).I Have Fears Regarding This New Science Venture- I Know Only 4grms Of
Fuel Will Only Be Used At Any One Time- I Can Only Hope The Mathematicians & Physicists - Have Exhausted All There Theories... Is It Possible We May Be Trying To Replicate The Sun & It's Awesome Powers- BE Careful We Do NOT Become The Next Sun In The Cosmos- I Believe More Intensive Research Is Needed Before The World Commits To This- { Let Us Not Forget } This Is A Science Project With One Thing We All Have In Common- The Need For Scientific Stardom & MONEY...
Not Saying No. Just Allow The Greatest Minds Throughout The World To Give A Second Opinion- MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. Am I The Only One Who Cares- The Devil Will Or Maybe Be Rubbing His Hands In Wait- let us Be Sensible Humans & Give This Project Just A Little More Scrutiny- Our Existence May Rely/Depend Upon It. I'm Not Being Alarmist- Chernobyl Was Described As SAFE-
I Have Fears Regarding This New Science Venture- I Know Only 4grms Of
Fuel Will Only Be Used At Any One Time- I Can Only Hope The Mathematicians & Physicists - Have Exhausted All There Theories... Is It Possible We May Be Trying To Replicate The Sun & It's Awesome Powers- BE Careful We Do NOT Become The Next Sun In The Cosmos- I Believe More Intensive Research Is Needed Before The World Commits To This- { Let Us Not Forget } This Is A Science Project With One Thing We All Have In Common- The Need For Scientific Stardom & MONEY...
Not Saying No. Just Allow The Greatest Minds Throughout The World To Give A Second Opinion- MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. Am I The Only One Who Cares- The Devil Will Or Maybe Be Rubbing His Hands In Wait- let us Be Sensible Humans & Give This Project Just A Little More Scrutiny- Our Existence May Rely/Depend Upon It. I'm Not Being Alarmist- Chernobyl Was Described As SAFE-
As other commenters here have noted, the technology necessary for net-positive-energy fusion reactors has been "just 20 yrs away now!" for at least 50 years.