Will Nuclear Fusion be a reality in the next decade?

[CryptoPanda]

According to CNN, researchers have hit a milestone in Nuclear fusion, I think this new development will change the power tussle to favor the US, if this technology can be fully harnessed they wouldn’t need to depend on Russia oil. But the problem is no one knows when this will happen, it took decades of research before scientists could make this breakthrough. When we do get the knowledge to harness the potentials of nuclear fusion, I believe there will be a battle between the private oil companies and government, they will fight and lobby to keep their billion dollar profit machines and their friends in congress will help them. It is our responsibility as a people to demand for restructuring of our energy to a cleaner and carbon-free environment.

Source: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/12/politics/nuclear-fusion-energy-us-scientists-climate/index.html

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[coupable]

Since work on nuclear fusion began, the scientific community has been closely collaborating since the 1930s. In order to actually launch the nuclear fusion reactor project in an experimental phase in 1998, it is assumed that work will start with the clean energy that it will produce after 35 years from the date of its launch. On this basis, this energy will not be utilized during the next decade.
I expect that after another 30 years, the current energy companies will turn to investments in clean energy, since the resources will not be sufficient to continue investing.

[Moneyprism]

Since work on nuclear fusion began, the scientific community has been closely collaborating since the 1930s. In order to actually launch the nuclear fusion reactor project in an experimental phase in 1998, it is assumed that work will start with the clean energy that it will produce after 35 years from the date of its launch. On this basis, this energy will not be utilized during the next decade.
I expect that after another 30 years, the current energy companies will turn to investments in clean energy, since the resources will not be sufficient to continue investing.

i also think so .. we are too early to be able to use this fusion technology because there are things that need attention, namely security .. we know nuclear fusion is a renewable energy that we need, but if not managed properly this will backfire for us and this could be dangerous and could kill a lot of people,, even though they claim that this fusion energy is very safe but I'm still not sure about this claim

[NeuroticFish]

I will start by telling that you're a bit late and this topic is already discussed for 2 days on bitcointalk, see A breakthrough in thermonuclear fusion technology! End of the era of hydrocarbon

However, I'll answer your question: the specialists said that we will have this somewhere in 15-30 years. 10 years timeframe would be kinda rushed, there are still big problems to overcome.

[poldanmig]

We cannot deny that this will happen soon, especially since the development of science and technology which is currently very advanced makes it possible that soon we will see nuclear fusion as an alternative to world energy, currently developed countries have continued to experiment to realize this by reviewing all the impacts that exist, and from some of the news I read if America is currently in the testing phase which is quite intense before actually implementing it en masse, for rich and developed countries of course nuclear fusion will be something to be proud of in the future but not for poor and developing countries that will probably continue to use oil or natural gas as their main fuel in my opinion.

[goldkingcoiner]

I get that everyone is all giddy and excited about the latest news of a breakthrough (getting more energy output than input in nuclear fusion) but we are still far from anything feasibly self sustaining. Lets not forget the two main issues:

1. Perpetual, uninterrupted fusion without melting the inner workings of the reactor and/or creating byproducts which hinder the fusion process. (Because it gets hot. Really hot.) We used to count the seconds, now we count the minutes. In the near future, reactors will be able to run for hours.

2. The fuel required for fusion is not that readily available to us in abundant quantities, (unlike fossil fuels or radioactive ore) and we can't get more energy out of fusion than we put in. Thats just basic physics. (If we make the fuel then we are putting the same amount of energy into the process of making the fuel (at minimum) as the energy we are getting out of the fusion itself. So that won't work.

The current hope is that we can mine the Helium-3 on the moon and use that for fuel.

[Hydrogen]

the specialists said that we will have this somewhere in 15-30 years.

Our working prototype for fusion energy is the sun.

It uses its immense gravity and powerful magnetic field to keep the fusion process contained and prevent energy loss. The result is a fusion reaction which is extremely efficient, which can be sustained over long periods of time.

Scientists have tried to recreate this process in a way which can be miniaturized and contained as an energy source. I think their biggest obstacle is containment and insulation to prevent energy creep. Their goal is to recreate the containment properties the sun exhibits.

Currently, their containment is based on generating powerful magnetic fields. Which is the reason behind their process not being as efficient as they would like it to be. It is possible that unless more efficient methods of containment are devised, fusion energy might never be feasible. The sun can solve this problem by simply having a massive amount of mass and rotating metal core which produce powerful magnetic containment. We need something similar that can be scaled down in size, and not consume a ton of energy. To sustain the process long term. Its definitely not an easy obstacle to solve.

[Gyfts]

My understanding is the world could have had nuclear energy for the past couple of decades but they chose not to over misleading environmental concerns and instead elected for oil/gas. It's not as if the technology for nuclear related energy isn't there, it's been there for decades but the climate change environmentalist had a successful propaganda campaign against nuclear energy which dissuaded countries from using it.

I don't have the technical knowledge to determine how nuclear fusion differentiates itself from the current methods of nuclear energy production -- I can say with certainty that it will be met with the same level of resistance regardless of how clean it is.

[dothebeats]

We have the technology, we have the theoretical knowledge that it is possible with the data that we have from observing our own Sun, we just have to find the working formula in order to make it work in contained environments without the fusion materials losing control in the middle of it all. Last time I heard, China was able to replicate it albeit in a very short time. No such damaging effects whatsoever, just a momentary glimpse of what it can really be inside a very controlled environment. I think the next decade will bring about a lot of technological improvements in terms of creating raw energy which can be harnessed by Man. I have my hopes up, and believe that we can do it just like we did fission back in the 40s with relatively primitive technology compared to what we have today.

[NeuroticFish]

Our working prototype for fusion energy is the sun.

It uses its immense gravity and powerful magnetic field to keep the fusion process contained and prevent energy loss. The result is a fusion reaction which is extremely efficient, which can be sustained over long periods of time.

Scientists have tried to recreate this process in a way which can be miniaturized and contained as an energy source. I think their biggest obstacle is containment and insulation to prevent energy creep. Their goal is to recreate the containment properties the sun exhibits.

Currently, their containment is based on generating powerful magnetic fields. Which is the reason behind their process not being as efficient as they would like it to be. It is possible that unless more efficient methods of containment are devised, fusion energy might never be feasible. The sun can solve this problem by simply having a massive amount of mass and rotating metal core which produce powerful magnetic containment. We need something similar that can be scaled down in size, and not consume a ton of energy. To sustain the process long term. Its definitely not an easy obstacle to solve.

Our sun uses a huge number of Hydrogen atoms, it uses immense gravity and heat, plus it has a good number of millions of km of space as distance. OK.
But we, humans, have creativity. We may find out ways to do that in a way not 100% identical our sun does it.
Even the current (test, small scale) ways are already a gain. The energy used is all re-created and can be used for another ignition. And the extra (since more than the initial energy is re-created) can be harvested/used for humanity's use.


See the airplanes. They are no longer that much close to the "initial project" ie bird's flight. Still, they do the job.
Back to fusion: I do think that it can be done in 20-30 years. I do think the presented timeframe is okay.

[DrBeer]

It is difficult to say that commercial operation will begin in 2030. But it can be assumed that today, after obtaining a practical result, for which scientists around the world have been fighting for more than 50 years, oceans of money will flow into this technology, more precisely into the development of industrial designs. Moreover, high-tech companies such as Google, IBM, INTEL and others will join this project, which can offer technologies that will help to greatly accelerate the modeling, calculations and development of physical solutions for thermonuclear energy. In any case - I hope that most of us will be able to check it out in 2030+

[Fortify]

According to CNN, researchers have hit a milestone in Nuclear fusion, I think this new development will change the power tussle to favor the US, if this technology can be fully harnessed they wouldn’t need to depend on Russia oil. But the problem is no one knows when this will happen, it took decades of research before scientists could make this breakthrough. When we do get the knowledge to harness the potentials of nuclear fusion, I believe there will be a battle between the private oil companies and government, they will fight and lobby to keep their billion dollar profit machines and their friends in congress will help them. It is our responsibility as a people to demand for restructuring of our energy to a cleaner and carbon-free environment.

Source: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/12/politics/nuclear-fusion-energy-us-scientists-climate/index.html

It's definitely fascinating to read about the leap that they've made and it could really be one of the biggest leap forwards humanity has ever seen. However it still seems like there is a long way to go, because while they made more energy than they put in, they would need to scale it up massively to cover the cost of the energy from the laser, but it's the first step on the way completed. What I found as perhaps a curious side effect - maybe I read it wrong - was that helium was created from the process, which is currently is a finite resource on the planet that is irreplaceable. If we figured out how to produce it as a byproduct of this reaction, that would also be of massive benefit for it's many uses.

[misterrtwisterr]

Probably not. In the next decade we might have a more realistic deadline when to expect a stable nuclear fusion that outputs more energy than it receives.

[goaldigger]

Probably not. In the next decade we might have a more realistic deadline when to expect a stable nuclear fusion that outputs more energy than it receives.

It will take a lot of time and let’s see who will do this first since European countries are badly needed this and need to look for an alternative source as they faced supply chain problem, it is started when Russia push with the war. This could be a big break through I just don’t know yet what will be the effect of this one to the environment and I hope the scientist will consider more the safety of the public.

[misterrtwisterr]

Probably not. In the next decade we might have a more realistic deadline when to expect a stable nuclear fusion that outputs more energy than it receives.

It will take a lot of time and let’s see who will do this first since European countries are badly needed this and need to look for an alternative source as they faced supply chain problem, it is started when Russia push with the war. This could be a big break through I just don’t know yet what will be the effect of this one to the environment and I hope the scientist will consider more the safety of the public.

War is a very strong trigger for fast technological advancement, it's just that the current scale of the Russo-Ukrainian war is not large enough for any major breakthroughs like the WW2 was. That's just my opinion. But in any case, it already significantly sped up the adoption of renewable energy. But fusion is something else. Some say we will never be able to get it to the commercial level.

[NeuroticFish]

War is a very strong trigger for fast technological advancement, it's just that the current scale of the Russo-Ukrainian war is not large enough for any major breakthroughs like the WW2 was. That's just my opinion. But in any case, it already significantly sped up the adoption of renewable energy. But fusion is something else. Some say we will never be able to get it to the commercial level.

War is indeed a good trigger for technological advancement, but that usually stands for the technology to be used in the war.
Even more, a war tends to be a black hole for resources/money, leaving insufficient funding for overly expensive projects like the nuclear fusion is.
So overall there are mixed feelings on this: on one hand this war is also a global energy war hence the advancements in producing energy are important, on the other hand the standard war (with bullets) dries up the funds. I fear that overall we'll have a setback/slow down in this development on short term, until after the war.

[Flexystar]

Yes I was seeing this news on the local news channel too. I am feeling so proud of our scientist and it’s years of research that is showing some fruits today. The fact that if it even takes another decade to implement it fully then also it’s just astounding news of this era. The reason is simple, we are already seeing climate changes, worst seasonal changes of the century. You never know what would happen in the future, whether we will even enjoy the carbon free lives or not?
This is why we need such technology which can make earth global warming free.

[Ozero]

Since work on nuclear fusion began, the scientific community has been closely collaborating since the 1930s. In order to actually launch the nuclear fusion reactor project in an experimental phase in 1998, it is assumed that work will start with the clean energy that it will produce after 35 years from the date of its launch. On this basis, this energy will not be utilized during the next decade.
I expect that after another 30 years, the current energy companies will turn to investments in clean energy, since the resources will not be sufficient to continue investing.

Scientists around the world are now very actively working on new technologies for obtaining alternative energy sources. Nuclear fusion is just one of those areas. But it also has good prospects for practical application. It is not even so important whether this type of energy will be used in the next ten years, or a little later. The main thing is that humanity has finally realized that oil and gas as a source of energy must be abandoned and used for other purposes.
In the near future, the energy market expects a significant redistribution of influence. The good thing is that Russia will lose its influence on it, because with new technologies, as a result of the war, not everything will be so good there.

[philipma1957]

According to CNN, researchers have hit a milestone in Nuclear fusion, I think this new development will change the power tussle to favor the US, if this technology can be fully harnessed they wouldn’t need to depend on Russia oil. But the problem is no one knows when this will happen, it took decades of research before scientists could make this breakthrough. When we do get the knowledge to harness the potentials of nuclear fusion, I believe there will be a battle between the private oil companies and government, they will fight and lobby to keep their billion dollar profit machines and their friends in congress will help them. It is our responsibility as a people to demand for restructuring of our energy to a cleaner and carbon-free environment.

Source: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/12/politics/nuclear-fusion-energy-us-scientists-climate/index.html

Under 10 years = no.


Under 20 years = maybe

[Nhazwrath]

the only fusion that seems like a possible reality is from Helion.