DailyDirt: Harnessing A Lot Of Energy Ain't Easy

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

We've mentioned some advances in fusion energy research not too long ago, and it looks like Germany is ready to take a few more baby steps towards figuring out how to control insanely hot plasma. Still, we're a long way from plentiful fusion-generated electricity (not counting solar), but if we want to stop burning fossil fuels, we're going to need to do some more research.

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel flipped the switch on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator to start testing its experimental plasma conditions that could lead to a fusion generator someday. Germany has spent over a billion euros and two decades building this experimental device which will never actually generate more energy than it consumes. Let's hope they learn a lot from this facility -- and maybe we'll have a new source of clean, convenient energy in a few more decades. [url]
• Nuclear reactors using fission (not fusion) are relatively expensive compared to other sources of energy. The history of small or modular nuclear reactors also suggests that there's not much advantage in small scale nuclear power plants. Dealing with radioactive waste also just scares people away from fission, too. [url]
• If Back To The Future taught us anything, it's that a lightning strike has enough energy to send a car through time itself -- if you only knew where lightning was going to strike. Unfortunately, 1.21 gigawatts isn't as useful as you might think, and capturing the energy of a lightning bolt doesn't get you all that much energy (unless you could do it continuously somehow). [url]

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Filed Under: angela merkel, energy, fission, fusion, lightning, nuclear energy, stellarator, wendelstein 7-x

DailyDirt: Baby Steps Towards Fusion Reactors

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fusion is always just 30 years away, but we seem to be actually making some progress after decades of building huge superconducting magnets that will probably be impractical for producing net energy. We've seen Lockheed Martin and a bunch of fusion energy startups claiming to be able to control a fusion reaction in less than 30 years, but economically generating energy is still a distant milestone.

• Are tokamak designs for fusion reactors a dead-end technology for ever producing energy? Safety regulations and the complexity of the tokamak design might prevent this fusion reactor technology from becoming a commercial venture. [url]
• A stellarator fusion generator is based on a design from the 1950s that might be getting popular again. Stellarators are a bit more complicated to build than tokmaks, but they're less prone to disruptions that could shut down operations, so they can run for a bit longer and could give us a better idea of how to control continuous fusion in a contained plasma. The billion-euro Wendelstein 7-X is about to turn on, and it could lead to a more reliable fusion reactor design. [url]
• Perhaps "big science" funding isn't the right strategy, and science should follow a startup incubator model? YC Research (a Y Combinator project) is going to try to tackle fundamental science problems... starting with just $10 million in funding. Perhaps more companies like Helion Energy will emerge to produce fusion generators -- but how does a non-profit division with a 30-year horizon for its goals... feed into a startup incubator? (Ask Google Alphabet?) [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: big science, energy, fusion, fusion reactor, plasma, stellarator, tokamak, wendelstein 7-x, yc research
Companies: helion energy, y combinator