Nuclear Fusion

[Mantis41]

Hiper is one of many laser fusion projects that have been in development for some time. Basically they are using high power lasers to fuse hydrogen and water particles together. The hope is the energy released will be greater than the energy used.

So far, in experiment it has taken more energy to create the process than the energy released. It now looks as if the scales are tipping the other way. This could become a viable source of energy using water or sea water as the fuel and creating little in contaminated by-products in as little as 10 years. It has been stated that a city the size of London would need around 10,000 litres of sea water a year to sustain its energy needs.[/p]

Hiper Project Home Page
BBC article
Audio article (Main Source)

 

[VashTS]

this will not be made available to the public.

 

[Midna]

this will not be made available to the public.

Were you expecting mass produced portable fusion reactors?

Fission has not been "made available to the public", and yet it's used around the world. Your comment is meaningless.

 

[KingVamp]

this will not be made available to the public.

Were you expecting mass produced portable fusion reactors?

Epic image.

3DS now to include fusion reactors.

Have small concern with this type of technology.

 

[Bladexdsl]

sweet i might see fusion in my lifetime after all

 

[Midna]

this will not be made available to the public.

Were you expecting mass produced portable fusion reactors?

Epic image.

3DS now to include fusion reactors.

Have small concern with this type of technology.

 

[nintendoom]

this will not be made available to the public.

Were you expecting mass produced portable fusion reactors?

Epic image.

3DS now to include fusion reactors.

Have small concern with this type of technology.

Let's make some Time Machine!

 

[Gahars]

I know this technology has been in the pipeline for some time (in the 70's, actually, it was predicted that we would have mastered fusion by now, but obviously that hasn't come to pass), so it's nice to see us gradually getting closer.

Technological wonderland future, get here faster, damn it!

 

[ferofax]

...wait, fuse hydrogen and water? what's the by-product? will it eventually cycle back down to becoming sea water again? because 10k liters of salt water may not be much, but that's just London. and imagine the eventual scaling up... I mean, yeah, water's rising because the poles are melting, but this could quickly counter that and could snowball into something uncontrollable... consume the water too much, and the sea will become too salty to support life. genocide of aquatic species in an unprecedented scale.


of course, that's if the oil magnates even let this tech get off the ground.

 

[chris888222]

Radiation?

 

[Gahars]

Radiation?

A problem, sure, but nuclear energy on a whole is pretty safe. If I remember correctly, it's one of the safest sources, actually (considering the dangerous materials people are working with, they HAVE to be). There is only a minuscule chance of anything even remotely going wrong, and even then, there are a million safety protocols to keep things in check.

Unfortunately, when things go up shit's creek it gets really bad, which has tainted its reputation considerably. It's a shame, because it has a lot of potential as an alternative source of energy.

 

[Bladexdsl]

this will not be made available to the public.

Were you expecting mass produced portable fusion reactors?

Epic image.

3DS now to include fusion reactors.

Have small concern with this type of technology.

snip

Let's make some Time Machine!

the flux capacitor makes time travel possible

 

[ferofax]

this will not be made available to the public.

Were you expecting mass produced portable fusion reactors?

Epic image.

3DS now to include fusion reactors.

Have small concern with this type of technology.

snip

Let's make some Time Machine!

the flux capacitor makes time travel possible

China beat the rest of the world to it.

 

[machomuu]

this will not be made available to the public.

Were you expecting mass produced portable fusion reactors?

Epic image.

3DS now to include fusion reactors.

Have small concern with this type of technology.

snip

Let's make some Time Machine!

the flux capacitor makes time travel possible

China beat the rest of the world to it.

Gaurdia beat China.

 

[Deleted-236924]

If the energy produced is greater than the energy used, then where does the extra energy come from?

 

[dickfour]

Good news, now I hope people will abandon the nonsensical notions of solar and wind energy which suck and will never be feasible. If we put all the money that we waste on those dead end technologies on fusion we actually have a chance at real green energy in the next 20 to 30 years.

 

[Fear Zoa]

If the energy produced is greater than the energy used, then where does the extra energy come from?

Science???

Or maybe it comes from all the trolls on the internet

 

[Nathan Drake]

If the energy produced is greater than the energy used, then where does the extra energy come from?

Science???

Or maybe it comes from all the trolls on the internet

The extra energy simply comes from the power of the reaction when all goes well. I would assume this reaction isn't simple to create, judging by the amount of time it has taken for them to say "we're almost there!" Regardless, chemical reactions are just awesome like that. You can create a lot out of very little.

 

[Pyrmon]

If the energy produced is greater than the energy used, then where does the extra energy come from?

Science???

Or maybe it comes from all the trolls on the internet

The extra energy simply comes from the power of the reaction when all goes well. I would assume this reaction isn't simple to create, judging by the amount of time it has taken for them to say "we're almost there!" Regardless, chemical reactions are just awesome like that. You can create a lot out of very little.

No, it isn't simple to create. You basically have to make a plasma, which requires extremely high temperatures for the particles to fuse together and release the energy. The hardest part is getting a plasma, because you have to contain temperatures approaching those of the sun's core.

As to where the energy comes from, it's already there. It's energy within the particles that gets released once you break all the bonds between the nucleus and the electrons and after they re-bond as helium. It's a very simplistic explanation, but it should answer your question somewhat. Here's a GIF:

 

[Densetsu]

The National Ignition Facility is only an hour and a half from my home in CA

I don't know whether to be excited or scared. Either way, I don't think this will be available for a long time. Technical obstacles aside, there are rich bitches highly invested in oil with powerful lobby groups who will keep shooting this technology down as long as there's money to be made off of other sources of energy.