China To Produce Clean Energy With Nuclear Fusion By 2028, Top Expert Claims

OVERKILL said:
Yeah, exactly. We understand how to do fusion, it is making it net positive that's the problem, and has been thus far out of reach. I don't see that magically being overcome in the next 6 years.
Click to expand...
We're actually pretty much there. Some of the most recent tests have been limited by ability to keep the reactor cool rather than inability to maintain the reaction. Once we have a system that can quickly, effectively remove heat from the reactor (and then of course use that heat to boil water) it should be able to be maintained longer. Fusion is here, it just hasn't been implemented yet. Actually the bigger issue is the tritium supply.
 
K.Aoi said:
We're actually pretty much there. Some of the most recent tests have been limited by ability to keep the reactor cool rather than inability to maintain the reaction. Once we have a system that can quickly, effectively remove heat from the reactor (and then of course use that heat to boil water) it should be able to be maintained longer. Fusion is here, it just hasn't been implemented yet. Actually the bigger issue is the tritium supply.
Click to expand...
Just start mining the moon, its covered in helium-3, easy peasy, until those pesky monoliths start showing up.
 
K.Aoi said:
We're actually pretty much there. Some of the most recent tests have been limited by ability to keep the reactor cool rather than inability to maintain the reaction. Once we have a system that can quickly, effectively remove heat from the reactor (and then of course use that heat to boil water) it should be able to be maintained longer. Fusion is here, it just hasn't been implemented yet. Actually the bigger issue is the tritium supply.
Click to expand...
Oh, we've got LOTS of tritium here in Canada, that's not an issue (CANDU's produce it).

Yes, maintaining the reaction has been a problem in recent tests, but I'm nowhere near as optimistic as you are that we are close to having a net positive sustained fusion reaction in the near future. Remember, this has been pursued for as long as fission, and we have been successfully producing electricity with fission for 70 years.
 
OVERKILL said:
Oh, we've got LOTS of tritium here in Canada, that's not an issue (CANDU's produce it).

Yes, maintaining the reaction has been a problem in recent tests, but I'm nowhere near as optimistic as you are that we are close to having a net positive sustained fusion reaction in the near future. Remember, this has been pursued for as long as fission, and we have been successfully producing electricity with fission for 70 years.
Click to expand...
You may want to take a look at this article

Science | AAAS

www.science.org www.science.org
 
OVERKILL said:
Oh, we've got LOTS of tritium here in Canada, that's not an issue (CANDU's produce it).

Yes, maintaining the reaction has been a problem in recent tests, but I'm nowhere near as optimistic as you are that we are close to having a net positive sustained fusion reaction in the near future. Remember, this has been pursued for as long as fission, and we have been successfully producing electricity with fission for 70 years.
Click to expand...
Fission also didn't require extremely complex, expensive electromagnets to contain the plasma, that didn't exist 70 years ago. We have that capability now.
 
K.Aoi said:
You may want to take a look at this article

Science | AAAS

www.science.org www.science.org
Click to expand...
I've read that, and yes, each CANDU unit produces ~1/2kg of tritium a year, we have 18 of them in Ontario. If ITER uses 1kg/year, as proposed, I don't see how that's an issue when Ontario's fleet alone produces 9x that.

Of course historically, tritium has been viewed more of a nuisance/waste product from CANDU's, which is why global stores aren't as high as one would assume based on the production numbers.

The article gets a few things wrong.
1. Half the CANDU's aren't retiring. At MOST, 6 of them will be retiring in 2025 unless we refurbish Pickering B.
2. There are a LOT more than 19 CANDU's.

There are 19 operating CANDU's in Canada. There are 31 globally.
- 2x CANDU 6's in China
- 3x in South Korea
- 2x in India
- 1x in Argentina
- 2x in Romania (and 2x under construction)

India also has their own (CANDU-derivative) PHWR program with 13 active units and several under construction.

Most CANDU's are presently being refurbished (and the Indian PHWR's require the same thing), which extends their life by another 30-40 years. This is not properly reflected in the article either.
 
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K.Aoi said:
Fission also didn't require extremely complex, expensive electromagnets to contain the plasma, that didn't exist 70 years ago. We have that capability now.
Click to expand...
The counter is that we've had 70 years to solve that and so far, it still doesn't work. I remain far less optimistic than you do.

To be clear, I'd be delighted to be proven wrong on the matter and fusion become productive and sustainable and head down the path of affordability and the process is refined, I'm just not expecting that to be the case within the timeframe as presented.
 
when you read the entire article, you notice that at the end, they admit they will not be ready to produce full scale until 2035. but agree 2028 is more catchy for an article about fusion.
 
Someone else would need to do it first, so the CCP could copy it. Name 1 original thought from the CCP in the last 30 years. I can't either.

Still waiting for those flying cars they talked about in the 70's.
 
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