fusion results

[sg66]

Guy from project on news says still using more to run than they get out, but they are super excited, no wonder, make a giant machine and get paid a fortune, don't worry if you can't get it to work properly

It's progress Jim but not as we know it.

 

[8ob]

Guy from project on news says still using more to run than they get out, but they are super excited, no wonder, make a giant machine and get paid a fortune, don't worry if you can't get it to work properly

It's progress Jim but not as we know it.

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

 

[Ross365]

Progress on fusion has been slow, but the fact is that every country is still hanging in there because if it does happen one day, it will be very cool indeed .

 

[fizzy]

Or will the oil companies suppress the technology?

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?

 

[fizzy]

Fusion does actually work - it is not pie in the sky

The Victorians would have probably used them to power a giant beam engine

 

[PhillipM]

Guy from project on news says still using more to run than they get out, but they are super excited, no wonder, make a giant machine and get paid a fortune, don't worry if you can't get it to work properly

It's progress Jim but not as we know it.

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.

 

[mike os]

1gw input 11kw out …. Yep that works …

 

[daleyd]

But better then commenting on how inefficient it is? But the Oxford people were testing one part of the new engine design. Not trying to make free electric.

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]

Fusion does actually work - it is not pie in the sky

The Victorians would have probably used them to power a giant beam engine

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.

 

[DennisCA]

"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

 

[sg66]

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.

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]

11mW wouldn't boil a kettle, 11mW is 0.011W. Even the most efficient light bulb would be barely visible at that power.

Megawatts, not milliwatts...

 

[sako243]

11mw is 11,000kw

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...

 

[daleyd]

And we are all grown up enough to have perhaps read the original article and know what he really meant.

 

[toddy]

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.

 

[toddy]

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

 

[Munkul]

Fusion does actually work - it is not pie in the sky

The Victorians would have probably used them to power a giant beam engine

That's like saying, hey, lets use plastic explosive as a boiler fuel

 

[sg66]

I think one of the biggest advances of late not at jet has been getting super conducting down to more manageable temp, not necessarily in fusion reactors but in labs, it is the sort of thing that filters to other stuff.