Topic: Fusion breakthrough?

[Libertas]

he federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said.

Although many scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore.

Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years.

The fusion reaction at the US government facility produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, which was about 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules of energy in the lasers, the people with knowledge of the results said, adding that the data was still being analyzed.
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/net-energy-gain-us-scientists-makes-breakthrough-nuclear-fusion

OK, settle down...

Let's see how long a gap there is between a 20% net and a 100% net...let alone the next progression to a more efficient ratio of output (like the sun)!  And if it can be done without causing a disaster...

[Libertas]

Too bad there cannot be great leaps forward to make fusion a liberating reality before the Hellish nightmare of climate cultist dystopia can inflict its genocidal madness...

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/nuclear-fusion-incinerates-climate-crazies

 

[richb]

Fusion has been like electric cars for the last 40 years,  the good ones are just around the corner.    Only we don't get to the corner......

[Libertas]

Fusion has been like electric cars for the last 40 years,  the good ones are just around the corner.    Only we don't get to the corner......

[Libertas]

As indicated from the start of this thread...there is a lot of ground to cover to get beyond mere barely more than net output to true nuclear fusion efficiency a la the sun.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/mitsubishi-among-more-dozen-companies-investing-736-million-japanese-fusion-energy-startup

But IMO it is the most promising of the alternative energy solutions out there by far.  Just not sure I'll see it effectively operational in my lifetime...

[Libertas]

One team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has been asking themselves lately as a metaphor, “How much fuel can we add to the fire while still maintaining control?”

Now, they believe they have the answer for one particular scenario. It’s all a part of the Lab’s work to bring energy from fusion to the power grid.

Building upon recent findings showing the promise of coating the inner surface of the vessel containing a fusion plasma in liquid lithium, the researchers have determined the maximum density of uncharged, or neutral, particles at the edge of a plasma before the edge of the plasma cools off and certain instabilities become unpredictable. Knowing the maximum density for neutral particles at the edge of a fusion plasma is important because it gives the researchers a sense of how and how much to fuel the fusion reaction.

The unique environment of LTX-?
 The LTX-? is one of many fusion vessels around the world that holds plasma in a donut shape using magnetic fields. Such vessels are known as tokamaks. What makes this tokamak special is that its inner walls can be coated, almost completely, in lithium. This fundamentally changes the wall behavior, as the lithium holds on to a very high percentage of the hydrogen atoms coming off the plasma. Without the lithium, far more hydrogen would bounce off the walls and back into the plasma. In early 2024, the research team reported that this low recycling environment for hydrogen keeps the very edge of the plasma hot, making the plasma more stable and providing room for a larger volume of plasma.

Richard Majeski, a managing principal research physicist at PPPL and head of LTX-? said, “We are trying to show that a lithium wall can enable a smaller fusion reactor, which will translate into a higher power density.” Ultimately, this research could translate into the cost-effective fusion power source the world needs.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/princeton-scientists-unveil-breakthrough-fusion-reactor-technology

Little by little progress is being made...but this remains a long haul effort...

[Syzygy]

"Such vessels are known as tokamaks."

LOL

I remember reading about these in the mid to late sixties in the Science Year Book put out yearly by World Book Encyclopedia.  Basically,  they are a proton (or is it an electron? probably electron) accelerator causing the acceleration with magnetic fields around a circular track. 
At a certain high speed,  crashing it into another will cause them to "fuse" with one another with resulting huge amounts of energy AND heat to be released.  Much like nuclear fission,  which splits the atom,  nuclear fusion relies on "fusing" subatomic particles together to produce energy.
Three things that I believe make nuclear fusion an impossibility:
-- holding one subatomic particle for only something like 1/1,000,000th of a second--an impossibility at this point
--accelerating the particle to be smashed into it to near the speed of light -- another near impossibility
--our sun is experiencing "billions and billions" (H/T Carl Sagan) of nuclear fusion reactions every second--THAT is the source of it's energy in the form of heat and light.  Should we perchance ever achieve the feat of nuclear fusion,  we would have to be able to contain extreme heat equal to that of the sun,  and I think that is another impossibility.
Back in my college days (mid seventies)  they were talking about using lasers to achieve nuclear fusion.  Now I see that "plasma" has entered the conversation. 
And isn't is weird that they chose to crank up that CERN during the total eclipse,  and that after it being mothballed for 5 or 6 years.  Last time it was cranked up they discovered/ produced "the God particle"-- the Higgs Boson particle.  Yeah right,  my ass craves stove wood too.
The so-called scientists involved with these Rube Goldberg contraptions are only interested in one thing:  money. 
They have to announce some new and amazing discoveries on occasion to justify their being the beneficiaries of huge government grants and financing of their "research."  But you will never see them announce their achieving nuclear fusion.  If you ever do,  bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.   
 

[Libertas]

Well, the money spent on researching fusion is like spit in the ocean compared to the money blown on totalitarian green schemes and is a sh*t-ton more real science-based than their cultish fantasies...

Sure, the sun has the advantage of mass, composition and size...and fusion research at least spawns new questions and new ideas...and I'm OK with that.

I would also like to see more nuclear energy development, SMR's, thorium reactors, SFR's etc...