Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

NickDanger3di t1_j09taif wrote

Reply to comment by Robo-Connery in National Ignition Facility (NIF) announces net positive energy fusion experiment by Robo-Connery

Disappointing that the average US citizen, and the media, have so little understanding of fusion that this is taken to mean we can start building fusion power plants now. My concern is the funding; US government funding for fusion research is $700 million per year; US government funding for subsidizing fossil fuels (mostly for exploring new sources) is a whopping $20 Billion per year.

Where would fusion be if we started funding fusion research and development for $20 billion every year? NIF has made a breakthrough; they have created the first fusion reaction to ignite here on earth. Proving that it can be done. But with only $700 million a year, it's not going to lead anywhere very quickly. I'm pretty sure we pay more than that to subsidize cheese production, so it can be stored in caverns and get moldy, requiring even more money to dispose of the rotten cheese. Makes me sad and frustrated.

Edit: information available on the whole Government Cheese thing is confusing; but it seems the government is down to a mere 300 million pounds of these days. My knowledge of cheese prices being restricted to the local grocery store, says that's around $1.5 billion at retail prices. So at wholesale, maybe the same as fusion gets?

2

Robo-Connery OP t1_j0bgk2b wrote

I agree with the sentiment here but I would point out that the first ever successful controlled fusion ignition (so we exclude the obvious fusion weapons) was in 1958 with a theta pinch machine. Fusion is achieved dozens of times a day at a large number of reactors and nif has routinely ignited fusion since it was commissioned. Nif achieved a milestone with this experiment but not the first ever fusion ignition.

2

drunkdoor t1_j0s9r4a wrote

Is this article completely wrong then by saying the first ever ignition event just happened?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_ignition

1

Robo-Connery OP t1_j0uuk42 wrote

Yes that article is completely wrong.

It even clarifies in the first section:

"Ignition should not be confused with breakeven, a similar concept that compares the total energy being given off to the energy being used to heat the fuel."

edit:

it also changes its definition multiple times throughout the article, that article is horrible. The definitions they give means NIF either achieved it on its first ever experiment or it is impossible for NIF to achieve it (id personally say the latter is true) it also claims it is a necessary pre-req for power - not true remotely. It also precludes all tokamaks from ever achieving it due to external heating being used for plasma control and h-mode access even if internal heating is 10 times higher (or 1000 or a billion).

1