Fusion Reactor Planned to be Built in Virginia

[kernals12]

MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems plans to build a 400 MW reactor near Richmond that will start producing electricity by the early 30s.

This is probably typical start up hype to get more money from investors, but the fact of the matter is that nuclear fusion is getting to reality with many breakthroughs by many organizations all over the world.

[Max Rockatansky]

Paywall... 

[kernals12]

Paywall... 

https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/chesterfield-county/fusion-power-plant-chesterfield-announcement/

[Road Hog]

Will a Miles Davis song be the theme of it?

[GaryV]

From the article:

This fusion power plant's development hinges on the work being done by CFS on "SPARC," a tokamak machine that demonstrates fusion energy. According to the release, SPARC is expected to produce its first plasma in 2026 and then net fusion energy soon after, "demonstrating for the first time a commercially relevant design that will produce more power than consumed." Once that is done, ARC can become a reality.

OK, we'll see. Sounds like a lotta "if's" to me.

[WillWeaverRVA]

From the article:

This fusion power plant's development hinges on the work being done by CFS on "SPARC," a tokamak machine that demonstrates fusion energy. According to the release, SPARC is expected to produce its first plasma in 2026 and then net fusion energy soon after, "demonstrating for the first time a commercially relevant design that will produce more power than consumed." Once that is done, ARC can become a reality.

OK, we'll see. Sounds like a lotta "if's" to me.

It's incredibly stupid and seems to be a waste of time and money. This startup claims to have developed an innovative form of fusion that can work at the grid level, but given that there has never been a fusion reaction that truly produces more energy than it consumes, this seems like a pipe dream.

The only fusion reaction that claimed to be a net positive was in 2022, when the U.S. Department of Energy performed a reaction that produced about 3.2 MJ of output from an input of about 2 MJ. The problem is, the lasers needed to start the reaction consumed 322 MJ of energy from the grid. So, in order to produce enough energy to power a dishwasher for one load of dishes, we had to input enough energy to power a whole household for 3 to 4 days. That is a tremendous waste, and that's a conventional fusion reaction...this startup claims to have some weird innovative version.

So basically, everyone's power bills will skyrocket due to a massive increase in energy consumption. If the "innovative" reactor even works they plan to sell their energy to data centers, and this is being celebrated by crypto enthusiasts because they'd have access to tremendous energy for their crypto mining operations.

Virginia is being swindled and our governor and Chesterfield County are falling for it.

[formulanone]

Will a Miles Davis song be the theme of it?

[ Freddie Freeloader intensifies ]

[kernals12]

The only fusion reaction that claimed to be a net positive was in 2022, when the U.S. Department of Energy performed a reaction that produced about 3.2 MJ of output from an input of about 2 MJ. The problem is, the lasers needed to start the reaction consumed 322 MJ of energy from the grid. So, in order to produce enough energy to power a dishwasher for one load of dishes, we had to input enough energy to power a whole household for 3 to 4 days. That is a tremendous waste, and that's a conventional fusion reaction...this startup claims to have some weird innovative version.

The NIF facility was not designed to be an economical source of energy, it was designed to simulate nuclear weapons tests. And getting more energy out than was put in the pellet was still a massive milestone. Until that point, the only way humanity had ever achieved it was using nuclear bombs.

[Max Rockatansky]

Cold fusion or true desirable efficiency this ain't. 

[JayhawkCO]

Cold fusion or true desirable efficiency this ain't. 

This makes me want to watch The Saint. Elizabeth Shue back in the day...

[Max Rockatansky]

Cold fusion or true desirable efficiency this ain't. 

This makes me want to watch The Saint. Elizabeth Shue back in the day...

She belongs in the Underrated thread.  The only reason I remember that movie is because she is in it.

[Rothman]

Cold fusion or true desirable efficiency this ain't. 

This makes me want to watch The Saint. Elizabeth Shue back in the day...

She belongs in the Underrated thread.  The only reason I remember that movie is because she is in it.

She did win an Oscar...

[Roadgeekteen]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

[SectorZ]

The one thing I've been confused about is this company's SPARC and ARC reactors use deuterium-tritium fuel.

I just feel that acquiring both, especially tritium, in concentrations to sustain constant fusion reactions is the biggest hole in the plan here. Even deuterium is something like 1 in 5000 atoms, which granted is a lot (10^20 atoms per gram of hydrogen) but that's a lot of waste non-neutron carrying hydrogen to weed out. The fusion process does make some tritium on its own to boost it, but deuterium isn't created by anything so it's finite resource. Maybe finite to a long timescale, but is finite.

Maybe, especially since I am not a nuclear physicist, I am missing something here, but it seems that the experts are light on details while pulling in billions in taxpayer funds for it all.

However, if this works as planned and is scaled up over the years, it will be one of the biggest achievements in human history.

[kernals12]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

[Max Rockatansky]

Cold fusion or true desirable efficiency this ain't. 

This makes me want to watch The Saint. Elizabeth Shue back in the day...

She belongs in the Underrated thread.  The only reason I remember that movie is because she is in it.

She did win an Oscar...

Pretty sure that's not what either of us we're getting at...

[WillWeaverRVA]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

[Max Rockatansky]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

He's already a pro-global warning advocate.  Might be a strange stance, but at least it is consistent.

[kernals12]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

"devastate" or "improve"?

[WillWeaverRVA]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

"devastate" or "improve"?

Considering that subsurface upwelling and glacial melting would contribute to the weakening of the Gulf Stream, which would have devastating impacts on the North American and European climates by reducing precipitation in the northeastern US and Canada, increased sea levels along the coast, and more extreme summers, I think it's obvious.

[formulanone]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

"devastate" or "improve"?

Considering that subsurface upwelling and glacial melting would contribute to the weakening of the Gulf Stream, which would have devastating impacts on the North American and European climates by reducing precipitation in the northeastern US and Canada, increased sea levels along the coast, and more extreme summers, I think it's obvious.

Will a Miles Davis song be the theme of it?

[ Freddie Freeloader intensifies ]

Ok, Pharaoh's Dance.

[kernals12]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

"devastate" or "improve"?

Considering that subsurface upwelling and glacial melting would contribute to the weakening of the Gulf Stream, which would have devastating impacts on the North American and European climates by reducing precipitation in the northeastern US and Canada, increased sea levels along the coast, and more extreme summers, I think it's obvious.

The earth's thermohaline circulation system works by upwelling and downwelling water at different places. If upwelling increases in one place, then by simple arithmetic, downwelling has to increase somewhere else. The net effect would be a *strengthening* of ocean currents. Bringing cooler waters to the surface would also *moderate* summer temperatures. Finally, the creation of new high pressure areas at sea would send more moist sea air onto land, increasing precipitation.

[Scott5114]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

"devastate" or "improve"?

Cool ocean water on the surface means less water evaporates, meaning less rain falls, worsening the drought which that river you depend on has been experiencing for the last 20 years.

[kernals12]

will it be able to power the 150 mph cars?

Not directly, but yes, it could provide energy to charge electric vehicles.

It could do much more beside. Some applications of an extremely low cost source of energy:

-Desalination of seawater
-Indoor farming
-Melting rock for earth removal
-Weather modification by pumping cool ocean water from the depth to the surface

I can't believe you not only attempted to seriously answer that question, but you also included something that would absolutely devastate the global climate even more than it already is in the process (the pumping cool subsurface ocean water part).

"devastate" or "improve"?

Cool ocean water on the surface means less water evaporates, meaning less rain falls, worsening the drought which that river you depend on has been experiencing for the last 20 years.

This study says otherwise. Rainfall over the sea is reduced but over land it increases.

[Roadgeekteen]

What grade do you think Kernals got in science class in high school?