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Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Tuesday, 06-Aug-2024 18:58:38 JST Minoru Saba

"Work began in 2010, with a commitment that there would be energy-producing reactions by 2020" but delays "mean Iter is not going to be ready for another decade...while Iter’s budget – which has already soared to $20bn – will increase by a further $5bn"
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/03/is-the-dream-of-nuclear-fusion-dead-why-the-international-experimental-reactor-is-in-big-trouble
🔸Technologically interesting, but not sure it's worth the effort to produce yet another heat source for driving steam turbines. Also, why recreate the Sun on Earth?
https://www.iter.org/sci/makingitwork
#NuclearFusion #WhiteElephant
In conversation about 4 months ago from toad.social permalink
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  Is the dream of nuclear fusion dead? Why the international experimental reactor is in ‘big trouble’
  
  from https://www.theguardian.com/profile/robinmckie
  
  The 35-nation Iter project has a groundbreaking aim to create clean and limitless energy but it is turning into the ‘most delayed and cost-inflated science project in history’
2. Domain not in remote thumbnail source whitelist: www.iter.org
  
  Capturing the energy
  
  The helium nucleus carries an electric charge that is subject to the magnetic fields of the tokamak, keeping it confined within the plasma where it contributes to its continued heating. However, approximately 80 percent of the energy produced is carried away from the plasma by the neutron which has no electrical charge and is therefore unaffected by magnetic fields. The neutrons will be absorbed by the surrounding walls of the tokamak, where their kinetic energy will be transferred to the walls as heat. In ITER, this heat will be captured by cooling water circulating in the vessel walls and eventually dispersed through cooling towers. In the type of fusion power plant envisaged for the second half of this century, the heat will be used to produce steam and—by way of turbines and alternators—electricity. (As detailed under "Remaining Challenges" below, the efficient removal of heat for the generation of electricity will require further R&D.) In terms of sheer scale, the energy potential of the fusion reaction is superior to all other energy sources that we know on Earth. Fusing atoms together in a controlled way releases nearly four million times more energy than a chemical reaction such as the burning of coal, oil or gas and four times more than nuclear fission.

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