Elusive fusion reactors to be commercialised by 2025-2030... Or so they say

A Bloomberg video outlining current progress, especially in private sector. Things are going well with the first fire-ups happening in the space of the next 3 years:

Helion seems most confident as does General Fusion, ITER won't be ready until 2025 at the earliest going by their roadmap.


Feels like we are on the current equivelant of the 60s space race. Exciting times.
 
Probably because they are still experimenting, and that their operating goal is more focused around weaponry than commercial fusion energy:

“These extraordinary results from NIF advance the science that NNSA depends on to modernize our nuclear weapons and production as well as open new avenues of research,” said Jill Hruby, DOE under secretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA administrator.
Click to expand...

Seems like the real advances will be coming from the peeps at the Oxford facility as well as ITER and General Fusion as they race toward net gain.
 
Thankfully their involvement is not as exclusive as Fission was since we now have a global effort at play with private sectors focused on commercial side of things.


They can try and keep the laser based Fusion quirks a secret, but pole how the Bloomberg video shows, there are a number of flavours of fusion all offering the same clean energy between private and public sectors around the world.
 
The UK location for the first commercial fusion reactor has been given the go-ahead. Will be operational and providing power to the grid by 2040s:

www.bbc.com

Nuclear fusion plant to be built at West Burton A power station - BBC News

West Burton A will be the site of the prototype fusion energy power plant, the government announces.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

It literally is less than 20 years away this time :p
 
Last edited:
The Department of Energy plans to announce Tuesday that scientists have been able for the first time to produce a fusion reaction that creates a net energy gain — a major milestone in the decades-long, multibillion dollar quest to develop a technology that provides unlimited, cheap, clean power.
Click to expand...


Interesting to see what DOE announce on Tuesday
 
Last edited:
That was before Ignition was reached, Ignition was reached back in ~2020 and published a year later, though they could not reproduce the result since, no idea what this new announcement is about but given it's the US DOE, I suspect they've reproduced it now and with a net gain in combo - Otherwise DOE have no reason to make an announcement and the news would go into another science journal paper like before.
 
Last edited:
FIngers crossed for good news indeed. I want to see certain naysayers eat their hats :p

Edit*
Looks like it was another NIF experiment and another net gain, so now that it's been reproduced, full steam ahead. Prediction is that viable Fusion in action within the next 10 years. See what the DOE say on Tuesday too.

www.independent.co.uk

US scientists achieve ‘holy grail’ nuclear fusion reaction: report

Nuclear fusion could be key tool to stave off climate crisis
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
Last edited:
So watching the stream, the scientist explained what they did, the experiment last week took 300mj "wall power" to drive lasers at 2mj, the resulting output was 3mj. She stressed that we are decades away but also stressed that we are not 5 or 6 decades away, and the secretary speaking just now stated the goal is commercial fusion in the next 10 years. She stated that last week's experiment was the first time this has been possible and they spent a week reviewing the data with a worldwide team, then having an independent body of experts peer review their findings before going public.

So good progress, and also highlighted that this is one experiment using one type of confinement, and there are private companies working on their own reactor types and methods. The scientist noted that the private sector is ahead of what NIF is at and stated that NIF is built on "1980s laser technology" - I guess this is what can be expected for the differences between private vs gov/public funded.

For all intents and purposes, private fusion will beat all government funded efforts to commercial fusion and we will likely see a military based application before anything that benefits civilian life.

The way the world works...
 
Last edited:
Compact fusion reactors are something being worked on by a number of private companies right now and yes they are one method to power ships to explore space with. The key ingredient needed to do fusion is in water, and water is everywhere in the universe so can be mined from comets/asteroids and moons alike etc.
 
Sankari said:
Only another 200 years to go before it's viable!
Click to expand...
*10

I will return to this thread in a decade to say I told you so
:p

It will not be NIF or ITER, these are experimental projects designed to prove that the technology works, which we now know yes, it does work. The question now for NIF is how do they compact down the initial power requirements to charge up the lasers. They cannot change the lasers without rework, since the lasers are based on 1980s tech. This is how long they have been working on the project.

The viable in 10 yrs will come from private sector since it is way ahead of NIF.

doodah said:
Definitely off topic but we've (GOSH) pushed this story hard for obvious reasons - it's ground breaking and so impactful on her life. The family must be so relived after exhausting all other treatment methods.

Back on topic. Will the energy needed for ignition always remain in the same ball park figure? Or are one of the pieces of the puzzle, to get this down?
Click to expand...
As with all things, it will become smaller and smaller as time goes on. They now know that it works with 192 lasers at 300MJ. The goal over the next 10-20 years is to make those lasers efficient, maybe even replace them. 192 is always going to be needed for NIF's reactor though since that is the number of lasers needed to stop the little point they are all aimed at from escaping the confinement when they fire.

Magnetic and other methods of confinement will have their own requirements to keep the plasma from escaping.

once ITER goes live I get the feeling they will see progress much much faster than NIF and things will really be heating up withing the fusion space. The late 2020s onwards is really going to be a fantastic time to be alive. First manned mission to Mars, first samples brought back from Mars, new missions to explore Venus/Mercury and some of the proposed water/active moons of Jupiter/Saturn, fusion energy.... Half-Life 3!
 
Last edited:
60 Minutes video I posted mentions all factors yes. Probably the only mass media outlet that has basically covered all bases and leaves the viewer to make their own mind up by the end. It's the most thorough I have ever seen from such an outlet and all covered in relatively short time too lol.

Also keep in mind that this is all related to NIF's experiment, they are using laser confinement using laser tech from the 1980s. All private firms of which there are loads now working on fusion, are using the very latest tech and will pretty much 100% hit bigger milestones way ahead of NIF.
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
A recent Event Horizon episode featured Last Energy's CEO and talked about future goals for compact fission nuclear power which is also a compelling area of development.


The really interesting talking point is after 10 mins, where safety of current nuclear is discussed. Nuclear in itself is extremely safe, a meltdown isn't a disaster, it is a function by design, and incidents like Chernobyl are not your usual meltdown since Chernobyl was a reactor designed to create nuclear weapons fuel primarily.

Edit* Typos from mobile...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom