US scientists repeat fusion ignition breakthrough
U.S. scientists have achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the second time since December, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said on Sunday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-nuclearpower-fusion-idAFL1N39N0FPOpen linkView original on kbin.social
7 replies
Oh boy, is practical fusion now only a mere 20 years away?
Cynicism aside, I do hope this proves to be a major step forward.
Combined with the room temperature superconductor news I do believe we'll see something within the next 10-15 years.
On Reddit this would be about time for people to come and pour cold water all over this by putting it in context and explaining why the breakthrough is only a small incremental step on a path that could still lead to nowhere. Do we have physics nerds here on Lemmy that know enough to ruin this so we don't get too excited?
ehh kbin/lemmy/other related platforms are still small, maybe once reddit gets a reputation for being an unreliable shithole some of the nerds will start coming over.
I've seen the entire trifecta of vapor-tech this weekend, room temperature superconductors, a world changing battery breakthrough, and now fusion!
It's an experimental system. The laser used 2 gigajules to fuse the fuel. The output was 3.
The entire system used more than 3 gigajules in the experiment but a non experimental system would be producing much more power.
Eli-DA. Because on this subject I am. Does it scale? Joules aren't really a measurement used in industrial electricity, which I am familiar with. kW and kWh are though. So it looks like 1gigajoule output is 277.77kWh?