Scientists hit a milestone toward nuclear-fusion energy.

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  • DadSmith

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    "U.S. government scientists said they have created a 'burning plasma’ - the very process that powers stars - in the laboratory, marking a milestone toward making nuclear fusion a viable energy source for humankind. "

    So when they actually get nuclear fusion power plants up and running. How much more power will one plant generate, and how much cleaner can fusion be than our nuclear power plants we have now?
    Also would electric bills drop in price with this new abundant source of power?

    This is an exciting time we live in. I wonder if they will have fusion power up and running in the next 10 years?
     

    jake blue

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    I predict by the time this is viable and ready to bring to market the by-then all-powerful wind and solar lobbies will leverage their tools in Congress to preemptively ban it because it threatens their monopoly... Much like how taxicab companies waged political war against Uber.
     

    rhamersley

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    electric bills drop in price
    giphy.gif
     

    rooster

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    Also would electric bills drop in price with this new abundant source of power?
    I’ve worked in the power industry my entire career. They spend money like it’s not theirs.

    Bills will not be going down.


    This is exciting, especially since covering the base load seems to be dependent on getting some kind of tech that we don’t currently have out there. Solar and wind can’t cover it and the fossil fuel plants are all being taken offline.
     

    jwamplerusa

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    Fusion energy has been 20 years away for over 70 years! While progress has been made several promising avenues appear to have ended up being dead ends.

    In the early 2000s the Navy was actually funding at a low level fusion research by Dr Bussard. I watched those developments closely because of not only his proposal but the functional implementation of it would have been not only the cleanest in regards to residual radioactive waste but the smallest and most economic. It too appears to have been a dead end

    In theory depending on the fuel used and the atomic cycle that fuel employs, a fusion reactor could produce nothing more than water vapor and helium if I remember correctly. Other fuel sources would produce radioactive waste in the form of machinery but at levels a tiny fraction of a fission nuclear plant.

    There are commercial fusion projects both in the US and Europe which have received funding. Lockheed Martin being one of the entities that initiated commercial research. After a couple of years they have all went dark in the news.

    For the future that the commies and the environmental crusaders envision fusion is really the only source. It is the source that could provide the nearly waste free base load for a largely electrified economy.

    It's a personal opinion, but I don't believe any realistic scenario results in a base load capability much smaller than we have today without fission or fusion nuclear. If they continue to shrink the base load capability what we're going to see is the rolling blackouts of California and the grid collapse of Texas occurring across the country repeatedly.

    Let that happen on the East Coast for 72 hours and we won't have to worry about it because they'll burn the whole thing down!
     

    radar8756

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    A common Scfi object is a Power Brick that is used in Homes / Cars-Trucks-Planes that provides Limitless energy ... with No Need for Transmission lines
     

    DadSmith

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    Some people believe that fusion power will make electricity free because it's supposed to be so abundant, and cheap. I've heard that from a few people and of course Hollywood thinks so as well.

    Let's not forget they plan on searching the galaxy on fusion power also :):
     

    AtTheMurph

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    I’ve worked in the power industry my entire career. They spend money like it’s not theirs.

    Bills will not be going down.


    This is exciting, especially since covering the base load seems to be dependent on getting some kind of tech that we don’t currently have out there. Solar and wind can’t cover it and the fossil fuel plants are all being taken offline.
    They spend money like it's not theirs because it isn't. They are a monopoly so they are no different than the government. In fact, they are part of the government.
     

    KG1

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    And how exactly is this relevant in a world that's more in tune with the size of Kim's ass than how to balance a checkbook or change a tire?
    I happen to think that the fission generated by the friction from Kim's ass could power an entire city.
     

    KG1

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    The question is can nuclear fission be obtained by burning garbage just like in "Back to the Future"? That would really be something.
     
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    Ark

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    Fusion has been 50 years away for 50 years. I gave up on it a long time ago.

    Just another "breakthrough" headline we'll never hear about again.
     

    phylodog

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    It won't come to fruition until TPTB have determined how to maintain their interests through the unavoidable collapse of the fossil fuels industry.
     

    Twangbanger

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    It won't come to be, period, because society isn't really looking for a solution which allows our consumption economy to grow without limits.

    TPTB have bought into a "theory of constraints" which holds that world population and economic growth must be capped at the current level (or actually some arbitrary value, like 1990).

    People think the "other side" is trying to reach the same goal as us, but by different and misguided methods.

    But they're not trying to reach the same goal. We think rolling blackouts are bad. They think rolling blackouts are good, because it represents mankind coming up against a natural constraint which was always there, but concealed by fossil fuels. They think if they strip away the "easy answer" of fossil fuels, we'll see the constraint clearly, accept it, and sit around in the cold having fewer babies, consuming less, and making the world more fair.

    You're dealing with a mental illness of self-hate. The academic liberal feels guilty for everything he has. Accomplishments, skin color, income, a warm house to sleep in...all made possible by repression and fossil fuels. "We must renounce the world." It's a religion of mental illness.
     
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    ghuns

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    ...You're dealing with a mental illness of self-hate. The academic liberal feels guilty for everything he has. Accomplishments, skin color, income, a warm house to sleep in...all made possible by repression and fossil fuels. "We must renounce the world." It's a religion of mental illness.
    A philosophy very much like the eco terrorists of Tom Clancy's, Rainbow Six or Samuel L Jackson's character in Kingsmen.

    Plenty of people believe in that kind of s**t, we're just lucky that they haven't carried out that philosophy to its logical conclusion, yet.
     
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