It's a common joke that fusion energy is "always 20 years away" but I swear that record was under 10 seconds in 2016 or so
It's basically been 5-10 years of well funded crash project away since the concept began being understood, but has consistently been funded at "yeah this is just never actually to happen within anyone involved's lifespan" levels instead.
EAST already scored a previous record in May, running for 101 seconds at a temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius.
Looks like the previous record was set by the same team earlier last year but the difference is they were running at higher tempratures. This is running at lower temperatures but for a much longer period of time, probably for research.
inb4 WW3 is a repeat of SU vs Nazi Germany but China VS USA and the American Goebbels is like "how are these bug people able to put up such resistance!?" after all our ICBM silos get with with orbital Chinese lasers
also literally Red Sun in the Sky
WW3 but the justification for war is openly stated to be China's fusion power threatening coal and oil profits. President Harris says she doesn't wanna start the bombing runs but the Parliamentarian and Joe Manchin forced her to.
2024 Debates
Trump: "We need a war with China."
Biden: "Can you believe this guy? This guy is crazy! This fool's gonna get us into a war! But to answer your question, yes it is time for war with China, a smart war, not this guy's phony baloney spray-tan war."
I had a comment similar to this… hmm, I think yours is more succinct.
enclosed fusion reactors are famous for being able to replace having a sun in the sky
Just build it higher up and enclose it with glass??? Like I don't get it it's not that hard???????
what type of person would destroy basically free energy even if you could somehow destroy the sun?
Is there even a scifi theoretical way to destroy the sun without also just outright destroying the earth?
Who would win?
🌞 A hyper-colossal ball of flaming plasma
or
🌍 One Wet Boi
The sun is powered by gravity, so no. I guess you could maybe try to speed up its natural death by dumping a bunch of elements heavier than hydrogen into it, but I doubt there's enough matter in the entire solar system to do that. Idk, I'm not a star guy.
Not saying it's really feasible, but iron poisoning would do it. Just chuck enough iron (read: a few Jupiter-sized masses of iron. This is the bit that's unfeasible) into a main sequence star and you've basically shoved a control rod into a nuclear reactor, except instead of just quietly shutting down it either slows fusion enough to trigger a red giant expansion or just shuts the star's fusion off entirely, resulting in a nova.
Actually both of these possibilities would also nuke earth in the process, so, uh, teleport it into a black hole?
If we can teleport shit, it'd be easier to just teleport the earth out of the sol system and away from the sun lol.
This is literally capeshit supervillain stuff. Do these people also think Dr. Evil is a real person?
Unlimited nuclear energy with no risk of radioactive contamination from a meltdown.
Militaristic nuclear research deprioritized properties like safety and sustainability in favor of weapons production abilities. I think we need to escape a model that depends on growth, but I think we’ll need better nuclear just to survive long enough.
I’m with you there, I just wanted to point out that it nuclear filled a military niche and was never really pursued for the benefit of mankind. Besides being limited by the pursuit of plutonium, nuclear would never be allowed to just power industry and a bunch of trains. Planners knew that they’d need the gasoline market in the US in order to maintain hydrocarbon availability for armored columns, jets, etc.
if it works as touted, energy that will last us until the death of our sun
Wow cool! Better give the US military another trillion dollars!
The recurring fusion bloomerism is one of the funny bits on this site
Oscillating between "the world is doomed" and "...but maybe" every few days.
The year is 2050:
China is launching its third fusion-powered space station in preparation of the imminent Trisolarian invasion.
India under leadership of the Children of Kali has declared open drone war on gas-powered private jets and yachts.
Europe is trying to find a way to make carbon capture profitable enough to invest in.
And America is in its third year of a nuclear civil war, reaching 10% literacy rates and 40-year average lifespans, as the media debates whether drinking radioactive water cures or worsens radiation poisoning.
Been meaning to read that, will probably pick it up this year.
All three books have different tones to them. First one is a mystery, second one is a look at global society dealing with a crisis, and the third one is the most mind-numbingly terrifying fucking thing I've ever read in my life dear fucking christ. Can't recommend them enough.
Ah shit may only have the first on my shelf. Will dig in soon.
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smash 2 isotopes of hydrogen together and lots of energy comes out + helium. The first step is creating an ultra-hot reactor that can provide enough energy to initiate the fusion reaction. Its very difficult to sustain that temperature with our current understanding of material science.
The Chinese scientists put a bunch of deuterium (an isotope of Hydrogen that has extra neutrons) in a vacuum tube with lasers and stuff, turn it on, and smush the hydrogens together to make helium and such. This produces a tremendous amount of heat and energy, and is what the sun does for power. They managed to sustain this for over 1000 seconds, shattering the previous record of 100 seconds set by the same scientists and machines last May. They also got it to a temperature several times higher than the sun.
How much energy is produced even in this short time frame lol
Like is it a net positive to the amount of energy put into it already?
Containing and using the energy of 1000 seconds of 100million or so degrees seems like a lot of power
I believe that there is a net positive energy produced, but the tech to actually harness enough of that energy to yield a net positive doesn't exist yet
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