http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-newly-forme...44.twitter

All the jokes about fusion power being around the corner are well deserved, but to my knowledge this is the first test reactor that theoretically should produce more energy than it consumes.

At the bare minimum I think these guys will outdo ITER.

(03-12-2018 12:54 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-newly-forme...44.twitter

All the jokes about fusion power being around the corner are well deserved, but to my knowledge this is the first test reactor that theoretically should produce more energy than it consumes.

At the bare minimum I think these guys will outdo ITER.

I remember it being right around the corner in the 70s.

My flying car is going to be powered by fusion.

My dad was an avid reader of Scientific America and he was certain in the 80's we would have fusion electric generation by 2000 or so and within another 20 years electricity would power nearly everything except ships, airplanes and long distance vehicles because it would be cheap enough to run power lines above railroads and commuters would all own an electric car that could go 20-30 miles on a single charge :)

(03-13-2018 11:02 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  My flying car is going to be powered by fusion.

My dad was an avid reader of Scientific America and he was certain in the 80's we would have fusion electric generation by 2000 or so and within another 20 years electricity would power nearly everything except ships, airplanes and long distance vehicles because it would be cheap enough to run power lines above railroads and commuters would all own an electric car that could go 20-30 miles on a single charge :)

The one thing about this that gives me some optimism is that they have a new generation of superconductors to use. You basically have to have the superconductor down to hundreds of degrees below zero and the plasma is millions of degrees. That's an enormous temperature gradient.

If they were simply just coming up with a new reactor design with no advances in physics or materials science I would be more skeptical.

And I do agree with that one scientist that even if the reactor design does produce more energy than it uses it will probably be more than 15 years before it's producing electrical power.

I'm still waiting for my jetpack.