Charter Member
This could change everything! MIT scientist are figuratively jumping up and down telling the world they believe they have found the secret to building a manageable sized magnet system that can contain a sustainable reaction necessary to produce nuclear fusion to produce vast quantities of electricity safely. Prototype to be built by 2025 and high expectations for commercialization shortly thereafter.
The world would never be the same.
https://news.mit.edu/2021/MIT-CFS-ma...on-energy-0908
...............
“You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution
Charter Member
I like magnets....
Registered Member
Great news, but I suspect we might not have to wait that long for fusion...........
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
Charter Member
I hope they succeed. If they can create the energy, store it and transport it, we all win.
Hunter
I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead
Charter Member
I remain optimistic that this long sought goal will be realized in the near future---for the betterment of all mankind and our planet.
As for the MIT team---it doesn't get better than that
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
Charter Member
Today's update on the MIT project from the WSJ:
Commonwealth Fusion Systems LLC said it has raised more than $1.8 billion in the largest private investment for nuclear fusion yet as startups race to be the first to generate carbon-free energy like the sun.
Big-name investors backing the latest funding round for the Massachusetts-based company include Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and George Soros via his Soros Fund Management LLC. Some of Commonwealth Fusion’s competitors, including Helion Energy Inc., have also recently secured huge funding as investors pile into clean energy technologies amid growing concerns about climate change.
Nuclear fusion has long been the holy grail of the energy world. Fusion is the process of generating energy by melding atoms. Current nuclear power plants create energy through nuclear fission, or splitting atoms. Fusion has the potential to create nearly limitless energy using common elements such as hydrogen, and has the added benefit of generating little to no long-lived nuclear waste.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
Charter Member
"On March 23, 1989, University of Utah chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons announced their "cold fusion" device to the world—sparking a scientific firestorm. But for many, excitement quickly gave way to skepticism."
- National Geographic
The previous claimants dishonored the U of U with their false and fraudulent stories. For me, it's a stain on the degrees I earned there.
And: "There is currently no accepted theoretical model that would allow cold fusion to occur."
- Wikipedia
Hunter
I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead
Charter Member
Closer & closer —
https://www.sciencealert.com/for-the...ed-by-the-fuel
...............
“You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution
Registered Member
I thought of you when I read that news early this morning. Good to see you stopped by............
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
Charter Member
I agree.
Hunter
I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead
Charter Member
All of this is exciting to me and raises my level of optimism that we will eventually harness fusion for great benefit. There remains a question in my mind---and I simply have not taken the time to research it as yet, and that is how to control the reaction. If anyone has the answer to that, I would love to read about it.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
Charter Member
Is your query of “control” of the fusion process about stopping the reaction completely for safety reasons or merely adjusting the amount of it? All of the theoretical reaction processes of which I am familiar use some form of electro-magnetic plasma containment system to maintain the reaction environment. Wouldn’t it be a simple process to control (stop) a run away reaction as a safety measure to interrupt power to the magnets and collapse the containment plasma? To control the amount of the reaction on a incremental level would be more involved, but could that not be obtained by controlling the amount of fuel to the reaction?
...............
“You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution
Charter Member
Man, that's a lot of food for thought, boys. Now I'll need to spend the rest of the night on Wikipedia.
Hunter
I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
