Nuclear fusion-breakthrough

[Brains]

It's taken them 70 years to get this far.
I expect it's a century or two before they will get it to commercial levels.

In the meantime the cost and ease of using nature's Fusion reactor (the sun) and solar panels will decrease to the extent of 'free electricity'
(They will tax solar panels instead, as you can't allow the populace free power!)

 

[Dogtrousers]

Let's say it was made to work. Would that be a good thing?

Unlimited carbon-neutral energy hoorah! We'd just use it in a way the buggers up the planet at an increasing rate. Like driving energy intensive reactions that produce some novel pollutant that makes things worse.

 

[DCBassman]

Unlimited carbon-neutral energy hoorah! We'd just use it in a way the buggers up the planet at an increasing rate. Like driving energy intensive reactions that produce some novel pollutant that makes things worse.

Precisely. It's called "heat". Instead of a greenhouse effect problem, we'd just add all the heat directly. In Arthur C. Clarke's 3001, unlimited energy from zero-point field sources led to the need for space-based mirrors to cool the planet.
The answer to ALL these problems is simple, really. Less humans.

 

[Dag Hammar]

This is a timely thread as a few days ago when my wife and I were bemoaning the cost of energy I said, with conviction, in two or three hundred years scientists will have developed a formula / method of producing energy at minimal cost whereby the energy can be produced, used, and recirculated for use once again. And those scientists of the future will chuckle and say what were those people in the 21st century playing at ?
Suppose you said to the driver of his horse and cart in the 17th century that in the future the ordinary working man will own an enclosed, self-contained fuel powered vehicle that he can jump in and drive himself at speeds of up to 70 miles an hour ( and beyond) and another thing, what if you had told that same man that in the future he will enter his darkened house and flick a switch or two and he would enjoy instant light and heat.
Let’s not underestimate the ingenuity of the human mind.
Of course, my optimistic vision of the future will come to nothing if the human race wipes itself out through wars or a nuclear disaster.

 

[matticus]

In the meantime the cost and ease of using nature's Fusion reactor (the sun) and solar panels will decrease to the extent of 'free electricity' (They will tax solar panels instead, as you can't allow the populace free power!)

Yes, the sun does seem to have Fusion sussed fair point! But even without taxes, solar panels will never be impact-free. Just look at the mining they need.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

A bit like climate change catastrophe.

Ooh, we've got a live one!

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I said, with conviction, in two or three hundred years scientists will have developed a formula / method of producing energy at minimal cost whereby the energy can be produced, used, and recirculated for use once again

Alas, the second law of thermodynamics precludes this.

We're just approaching two hundred years since it was first formalised, by Carnot in 1824.

 

[Tenkaykev]

It's taken them 70 years to get this far.
I expect it's a century or two before they will get it to commercial levels.

In the meantime the cost and ease of using nature's Fusion reactor (the sun) and solar panels will decrease to the extent of 'free electricity'
(They will tax solar panels instead, as you can't allow the populace free power!)

PV panels with battery storage seems a very good investment for those able to take advantage. There's a couple of council owned sheltered accommodation areas locally, a mix of a couple of small 2 story blocks and quite a few semi detached bungalows. All the bungalows have as many PV panels as can be fitted on the roof. The blocks of flats have a flat roof with a retrofitted angled frame where PV panels have been added.

 

[captain nemo1701]

Highly appropriate it should be the US National Ignition Facility....their laser array was used as the USS Enterprise Warp Engine Core in Star Trek: Into Darkness:

Appropriate too since the Enterprise isn't powered by the old Dilithium crystals but mixing matter & antimatter together, so counts as fusion.

 

[figbat]

Highly appropriate it should be the US National Ignition Facility....their laser array was used as the USS Enterprise Warp Engine Core in Star Trek: Into Darkness:
View attachment 671044
Appropriate too since the Enterprise isn't powered by the old Dilithium crystals but mixing matter & antimatter together, so counts as fusion.

Isn't that annihilation rather than fusion?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Isn't that annihilation rather than fusion?

Controlled explosion?

 

[DCBassman]

Isn't that annihilation rather than fusion?

Yes.

 

[mustang1]

Thirty years ago nuclear fusion was thirty years away. It's still thirty years away. In 30 years it will be thirty years away.

A bit like climate change catastrophe.

A bit like n+1 bikes. But in this case it's n+30.

 

[captain nemo1701]

Isn't that annihilation rather than fusion?

Well, matter=energy=matter, so is there any annihilation?. Its all energy ultimately.

Isn't that annihilation rather than fusion?

 

[MichaelW2]

With great power comes great responsibility. Are we ready to limit ourselves given unlimitted electricity.