- Thread starter toddy
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8ob
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I was ok with it until I heard the words investment, ten years and over £400m. Considering the importance of something a tad more sustainable in the way of a power source I have that down as about 60p per person per year, considering the money we are raped of I think its a pretty poor contribution.
Bob
.NO!
Oil companies explore all sorts of technology. If someone like BP perfected fusion they could name their price - who would care about silly old oil?
PhillipM
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it's not big enough to get more out than in, it was a test run for a reactor being built 10x the size. That one should easily sustain equilbrium going by todays report. Bigger reactors tend to be more efficient so long as we can deal with the heat.
daleyd
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Both are valid points - I agree it’s fascinating, and probably should be done - whether it will ever amount to a working design is unclear - but if we don’t try we’ll never know. You can see why people might be a little cynical though…
daleyd
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Of course it does, no one is saying it doesn’t! Fusion as a practical means of powering electricity generation is a different matter though.Fusion does actually work - it is not pie in the sky
The Victorians would have probably used them to power a giant beam engine
DennisCA
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"So cheap it can't be metered".... or something like that.
Used to be bloody cheap in its heyday in the 80s in Sweden though. The country ran so much heating on direct electric then and now that many reactors are shut down and prices nearing continental levels they're having problems
Ohh I get that it's all prices of a jigsaw, equilibrium on a one 10 times the size just means they have a warm factory
Fred Trevvett
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Megawatts, not milliwatts...
sako243
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Ummm...
Capitalisation matters, m is milli, M is mega. w is nothing (that I can remember at least). W is Watts after the guy who discovered / invented it.
11mW is 0.011W
This is a technical forum after all...
toddy
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i will try and address some of the points as to why JET will find it very hard to get a Q=1 (heating energy in to fusion energy out)
quick first point that once we get a Q=1 we will no longer need to heat the fuel, as it will be self sustaining.
JET is a old machine, it was designed in the 60/70's and built in the early 80's and now is close to 40 years old when it was designed to last 5 years.
we are using very old magnet tech, non of these super conductive ones, this means we only have water as a coolant inside a copper coil. the new ones have liquid He at about -270 c.
we get very little money to be able to make improvements, as remember on the Culham site there is 2 reactors.
we do use alot of energy (up to 2GW) but most of this is to power the magnets. to heat the fuel we use something call a neutral beam and this is made inside a PINI (positive ion neutral injection) these are max at 2.2MW each and we have 16 of them, but one was non operational when these were run, so it is a maximum of 33MW of heating, of that i do not know how much we used tbh.
we as a world need to invest more in the research is needed and in the last 5 years there has been loads of small private reactors poping up all over the place.
and now a quick few facts about JET
when it is running it is the hottest place in our solar system (upto 150,000,000C recorded).
when it is running it has the biggest temperature gradient anywhere in the known universe (from 150,000,000C to about 300C in a meter).
JET control room has a direct line to the national grid control room.
the large shielding doors are over 800T and the shielding beams are over 2000T and 2 of these need to be moved before access is available for equipment.
they do, do public tours and some online ones too, they are interesting to go on.
quick first point that once we get a Q=1 we will no longer need to heat the fuel, as it will be self sustaining.
JET is a old machine, it was designed in the 60/70's and built in the early 80's and now is close to 40 years old when it was designed to last 5 years.
we are using very old magnet tech, non of these super conductive ones, this means we only have water as a coolant inside a copper coil. the new ones have liquid He at about -270 c.
we get very little money to be able to make improvements, as remember on the Culham site there is 2 reactors.
we do use alot of energy (up to 2GW) but most of this is to power the magnets. to heat the fuel we use something call a neutral beam and this is made inside a PINI (positive ion neutral injection) these are max at 2.2MW each and we have 16 of them, but one was non operational when these were run, so it is a maximum of 33MW of heating, of that i do not know how much we used tbh.
we as a world need to invest more in the research is needed and in the last 5 years there has been loads of small private reactors poping up all over the place.
and now a quick few facts about JET
when it is running it is the hottest place in our solar system (upto 150,000,000C recorded).
when it is running it has the biggest temperature gradient anywhere in the known universe (from 150,000,000C to about 300C in a meter).
JET control room has a direct line to the national grid control room.
the large shielding doors are over 800T and the shielding beams are over 2000T and 2 of these need to be moved before access is available for equipment.
they do, do public tours and some online ones too, they are interesting to go on.
Brad93
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I would like to do a tour. Maybe we could organise a forum meet-up.
toddy
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- Didcot, uk
here is where to get the tours
https://ccfe.ukaea.uk/about-ccfe/visit-ccfe/
the virtual tours are here
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/uk-atomic-energy-authority-30635372912
and the next one is on the 23rd of feb
https://ccfe.ukaea.uk/about-ccfe/visit-ccfe/
the virtual tours are here
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/uk-atomic-energy-authority-30635372912
and the next one is on the 23rd of feb
Munkul
Jack of some trades, Master of none
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That's like saying, hey, lets use plastic explosive as a boiler fuelFusion does actually work - it is not pie in the sky
The Victorians would have probably used them to power a giant beam engine
