China creates seven minutes of sunshine

Not good. 

Can't wait to hear Fred's take on this.

@PalawOne USA news reported in Dec. 2022 that US National Ignition Facility in California was performing nuclear fusion experiments that released more energy than was put in. Not sure if this is similar to the Chinese technique; US research heats the fusion materials with high powered lasers and contains the reaction in a plasma that seems similar to the Chinese experiment. Somehow I think there may have been a bit a technology transfer here but maybe it was just a coincidence 😂

Can't wait to hear Fred's take on this.
-@mugteck

Fred Who?

Not good.
-@Wellsfry

It's good. Both China and the US are developing fusion reactors. China is better at the media hype by claiming "artificial sun" but it doesn't matter, fusion is the sun's process. In the US there are 2 or 3 private groups trying to commercialize it as we speak. Not sure about Europe.

Can't wait to hear Fred's take on this.
-@mugteck

Fred won't be participating in the Philippines forum anymore.

Not good.
-@Wellsfry
It's good. Both China and the US are developing fusion reactors. China is better at the media hype by claiming "artificial sun" but it doesn't matter, fusion is the sun's process. In the US there are 2 or 3 private groups trying to commercialize it as we speak. Not sure about Europe.
-@danfinn

I think so too. We have to find a way to power the electrical future without emitting even more carbon and while renewables are providing much greater percentage now, and are cheaper than power generation from fossil fuels in most cases, we probably won't be able to grow them fast enough. Not to mention the intermittency problem.

Can't wait to hear Fred's take on this.
-@mugteck

Fred Who?
-@Enzyte Bob

Flintstone

Flintstone  -@mugteck

`

Hahaha .. except this Fred also wants to be controversial

Anyway, as Dan notes regarding the U.S. and fusion ..

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63957085

"When two atoms of a light element such as hydrogen are heated and combine to form a single heavier element such as helium, the nuclear reaction produces massive amounts of energy which can be captured.

Because they have the same positive charge they naturally repel each other. A lot of energy is needed to overcome this resistance.

In the Sun, this happens thanks to extremely high temperatures of around ten million degrees Celsius, and significant pressure - more than 100 billion times that of the Earth's atmosphere.

On Earth, scientists have used various different techniques to attempt to recreate these conditions. But it has proved very difficult to maintain the high temperature and pressure needed for long enough.

The US's National Ignition Facility (NIF) has announced it successfully used a 192-beam laser to turn a tiny amount of hydrogen into enough energy to power about 15 - 20 kettles.

This means that - for the first time - scientists were able to generate more power than the lasers put in to the experiment.

When will large-scale nuclear fusion be possible? Despite a series of promising breakthroughs in the last few years, large-scale nuclear fusion is still several years away.

--

The way I heard it recently on a podcast, is:

For thirty years the scientists have said  "It will work within 10 years".

But now they are saying "If it doesn't work within 10 years it never will"

So we are getting close?

Fusion to Electricty without steam.

https://www.electricfuture.com/nuclear- … on-energy/

The way I heard it recently on a podcast, is:
For thirty years the scientists have said "It will work within 10 years".

But now they are saying "If it doesn't work within 10 years it never will"

So we are getting close?
-@pnwcyclist

It already "works". It is just a matter of making large reactors and putting them on the grid, and, if doing so is 1) practical and 2) economically feasible. Private companies in EU and US will determine this, as will China. They target 2035. But if it is not practical or is too expensive then, there may be a breakthough further down the line that opens it up again.

@danfinn I think Helios has the right idea. Small reactors, Pulsed fusion. Direct electricity. And they kind of follow the SpaceX model, build it and test often. They're already building the 7th version. The plan is to be able to build them gigafactory style, not huge multi billion dollar plants. And they have a patent on making their own Helium-3.

The way I heard it recently on a podcast, is:
For thirty years the scientists have said "It will work within 10 years".

But now they are saying "If it doesn't work within 10 years it never will"

So we are getting close?
-@pnwcyclist
It already "works". It is just a matter of making large reactors and putting them on the grid, and, if doing so is 1) practical and 2) economically feasible. Private companies in EU and US will determine this, as will China. They target 2035. But if it is not practical or is too expensive then, there may be a breakthough further down the line that opens it up again.
-@danfinn

Yeah what I meant by "works" is feasible. Practical. Usable in commercial applications. Lazy wording.

Thanks.

@danfinn

Funny though As an engineer I wonder what the cost of creating So powerful of a Fusion to clone and create a miniature sun for 8 minutes, and the cost for those 6 minutes  and since creating fusion so powerful that no matter what safety precautions China or the USA takes this type of fusion to create  a  man made sun the fusion only can  (at most ) be covered with shields on the sides and the top and bottom will need to have   exposure for the fusion to create a sun. Here's another problem.    They say the world at our continued rate of growth in population  new diseases and insects that are ammunition to all the crap pesticides we've filled the earths soul and the next hundred years of global warming causing water shortages and crops and livestock shortages will kill hundreds of thousands and then theres the Sun    It's still healthy for almost 5 billion years but in the next couple decade's global warming  that is now irreversible will increase the world temperature by 1.5 Celsius.  That's a whopping 33.4 degrees  making it impossible for farmers

at the mow

Randall Roy said. . . . the Sun  It's still healthy for almost 5 billion years but in the next couple decade's global warming that is now irreversible will increase the world temperature by 1.5 Celsius. That's a whopping 33.4 degrees making it impossible for farmers at the mow

************************************

Next couple decades?

I'm not about to get into a joust about global warming, the planet since it's creation some billions of years ago has gone through many cycles of warming & cooling without any human intervention, well before we were a humans or an influencers.

The present humans followed Darwin's theory of evolution, in a sense we developed as the planet let us develop. Lets suppose the earth was already the 33.4 C constant for several billion years, chances are we would still be here, but we would be different as the world would be different.

We can see that Orangutans have developed tools in aiding to their existence catching up with us as we were in the stone age.

This is all mute before the environment, if it does change, we will have adapted to it. Maybe before that happens we will be absorbed into AI and have no need for our cumbersome bodies. I wonder what Darwin would have thought about that.

Now if you believe we are a divine creation, I can answer the age old question of what came first, the chicken or the egg. The Chicken as the creator would not go through the bother of having us wait for the egg to hatch, who knows maybe Adam & Eve would have eaten the egg.

Did pilots actually see UFO's? It is said by the time a pilot sees the UFO (with the time lag) the UFO has moved on, maybe beyond our solar systems.

I can imagine those entities would say to themself, after seeing us, nothing of interest here, lets move on.

Lol.  Research my friend.  Here's a tie bit to add also. One of the main sources that supply water to western states is the Colorado river which is already depleted so badly that they are talking about cutting off some states and parts of those states have no alternative water supply.   An old rock song said it best.  I think it was called in the year 2525    If man is still alive.   A verse in there says.  “We've taken everything this old earth can give.      And we ain't put back nothing”.    Says it all

Randal Roy said . ., . Lol. Research my friend. Here's a tie bit to add also. One of the main sources that supply water to western states is the Colorado river which is already depleted so badly that they are talking about cutting off some states and parts of those states have no alternative water supply. 

************************

I'm quite familiar with the Colorado river, I've view it's headwaters beginning as a trickle and lived in Las Vegas for 13 years before moving to the Philippines.

The Colorado River is  70 million years old, one of the oldest rivers in the world. What you don't take into consideration the river is behaving normally (cycle) considering how old it is.

The problem is the population growth in the arid states it runs through and it's commercial use.