| Fusion energy on the way? 11:32 - Jan 20 with 778 views | GeoffSentence |
British Fusion Energy company Tokamak Energy has come out with this statement
"Tokamak Energy’s target is to actually generate fusion power by 2025 and have a commercial plant ready by 2030. "
https://www.ft.com/content/a8d0a7e4-20e3-11ea-b8a1-584213ee7b2b
Though this would be terrific if they could manage it, I have to say I am hugely sceptical and indeed sceptical that commercial fusion energy generation will ever be possible.
Even well funded ITER isnt expecting commercial generation any time soon. |  |
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| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:38 - Jan 20 with 754 views | Steve_M |
Hasn't commercially viable fusion been 10-15 years away for about 50 years though? |  |
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| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:41 - Jan 20 with 757 views | StokieBlue |
Fusion power has already been generated at a break-even level, it's the "commercial plant" part of that sentence which is important.
It would be amazing but as you say, the hugely funded ITER and NIF projects (using plasma and lasers respectively) aren't quite so bullish.
They would need to have found something nobody else has thought of which is certainly possible but seems unlikely. I would be surprised if they were shouting about it as well. I did see they received 67m in funding today though so guess they needed to say something.
SB |  |
| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:47 - Jan 20 with 728 views | Guthrum |
| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:41 - Jan 20 by StokieBlue |
Fusion power has already been generated at a break-even level, it's the "commercial plant" part of that sentence which is important.
It would be amazing but as you say, the hugely funded ITER and NIF projects (using plasma and lasers respectively) aren't quite so bullish.
They would need to have found something nobody else has thought of which is certainly possible but seems unlikely. I would be surprised if they were shouting about it as well. I did see they received 67m in funding today though so guess they needed to say something.
SB |
I didn't think break-even had yet been achieved, let alone an energy surplus. I remain highly dubious in the short term.
https://www.iter.org/sci/BeyondITER |  |
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| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:50 - Jan 20 with 723 views | StokieBlue |
| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:47 - Jan 20 by Guthrum |
I didn't think break-even had yet been achieved, let alone an energy surplus. I remain highly dubious in the short term.
https://www.iter.org/sci/BeyondITER |
I guess it depends on your agreed calculation - NIF announced in 2014 they had broken even:
On 7 October 2013, LLNL announced that it had achieved scientific breakeven in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) on 29 September.[19][20][21] In this experiment, Pfus was approximately 14 kJ, while the laser output was 1.8 MJ. By their previous definition, this would be a Q of 0.0077. For this press release, they re-defined Q once again, this time equating Pheat to be only the amount energy delivered to "the hottest portion of the fuel", calculating that only 10 kJ of the original laser energy reached the part of the fuel that was undergoing fusion reactions.
It seems this has been contested though since I read about it. We know it's possible, it will happen but you are definitely right to be highly dubious in the short-term.
SB | |
| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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| Fusion energy on the way? on 12:20 - Jan 20 with 664 views | Guthrum |
| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:50 - Jan 20 by StokieBlue |
I guess it depends on your agreed calculation - NIF announced in 2014 they had broken even:
On 7 October 2013, LLNL announced that it had achieved scientific breakeven in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) on 29 September.[19][20][21] In this experiment, Pfus was approximately 14 kJ, while the laser output was 1.8 MJ. By their previous definition, this would be a Q of 0.0077. For this press release, they re-defined Q once again, this time equating Pheat to be only the amount energy delivered to "the hottest portion of the fuel", calculating that only 10 kJ of the original laser energy reached the part of the fuel that was undergoing fusion reactions.
It seems this has been contested though since I read about it. We know it's possible, it will happen but you are definitely right to be highly dubious in the short-term.
SB |
To make any sense, the equation has to cover the whole system, unless they can prove that it is possible to create a stup which removes all of the other input energy wasteage. To be of any practical use, a positive ratio needs to be recorded at the boundary of the entire facility. | |
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| Fusion energy on the way? on 12:36 - Jan 20 with 631 views | GeoffSentence |
| Fusion energy on the way? on 11:38 - Jan 20 by Steve_M |
Hasn't commercially viable fusion been 10-15 years away for about 50 years though? |
It's usually considered to be perpetually 30 years away, so this is an advance in that respect. | |
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