Electricity too cheap to meter!

[Brigadier]

BBC News - Breakthrough in nuclear fusion energy announced

Breakthrough in nuclear fusion energy announced

US researchers have overcome a major barrier to achieving low-carbon nuclear fusion.

www.bbc.co.uk

A gram or so is zapped, and releases its energy. Theoretically, this heats up something, and drives turbines to produce electricity.

My question is (for a functioning fusion reactor) , how often do they have to put more fuel in, how do they get the new fuel in, how much new fuel at each pop, and do they have to stop and reload i.e. non-continuous generation?

 

[diy_fun_uk]

In terms of our bills, I've said before, I think it's largely irrelevant how energy and fuel is produced. If anyone thinks our gas, elec, vehicle fuel costs will ever get significantly lower (regardless of what the gurus and politicians tell us) they're deluded.

Imagine if I announced a way to run petrol and diesel cars on tap water that wasn't detrimental to the engine. How long do you think it would be until I mysteriously fell from a tall building

 

[big-all]

that exactly what they said about the original nuclear power stations "power so cheap it wont be worth monitoring"

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Listen to the politicians when they talk about renewables, this that or the other when it comes to creating energy. They're very careful to be non-committal around consumer bills e.g. and this could mean lower costs to the consumer ...

aye right, whatever.

 

[IT Minion]

that exactly what they said about the original nuclear power stations "power so cheap it wont be worth monitoring"

The wording was ambiguous, the person who said that claimed he was referring to Fusion power.

Which is still 30 years off and I expect it will still be 30 years off when we are all dead.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

We need to give big business and those in its pockets time to figure out how the average consumer can still be shafted ... oops I mean receive good value for money with the services delivered ...

 

[big-all]

The wording was ambiguous, the person who said that claimed he was referring to Fusion power.

Which is still 30 years off and I expect it will still be 30 years off when we are all dead.

or getting our telegram from Prince William or 752 conservative priminister

 

[RandomGrinch]

The wording was ambiguous,

Definitely not relating specifically to nuclear fission, but rather expressing his hopes for the future...

Lewis L Strauss a former Navy officer who was appointed Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1953; addressing "The National Association of Science Writers"

From NYTimes 17/9/1954

“Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter...will travel effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age.”

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Well @RandomGrinch, that all panned out well

 

[gas112]

Were is Nikola Tesla when we need him

 

[algas]

that exactly what they said about the original nuclear power stations "power so cheap it wont be worth monitoring"

The same as they said about North sea gas

 

[transam]

some bloke talking about it on the radio said that a temp in excess of 1 million degrees centigrade had to
Be used ??

 

[RandomGrinch]

some bloke talking about it on the radio said that a temp in excess of 1 million degrees centigrade had to
Be used ??

Yup, over 150'000'000 °C in a tokamak.
...and you need some blooming big superconducting magnets to keep the plasma away from the sides of the torus!

 

[Brigadier]

But how do you get the fuel in?
How much?
How often?

It can't be like stoking a steam loco, surely?

 

[RandomGrinch]

But how do you get the fuel in?
How much?
How often?

It can't be like stoking a steam loco, surely?

I haven't looked into it properly yet,
but this might be a start:

Fuelling the Fusion Reaction

Although different isotopes of light elements can be paired to achieve fusion, the deuterium-tritium (DT) reaction has been identified as the most efficient for fusion devices. ITER and future devices will use the hydrogen www-definition-5*250*hardisotopes deuterium and tritium to fuel the...

www.iter.org