“Are they going to be used to generate steam to drive a turbine? How do they complete the conversion into usable energy?”
“Are they going to be used to generate steam to drive a turbine? How do they complete the conversion into usable energy?”
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Nearly all fusion projects aim at direct conversion from plasma discharge to electron generation hence electricity. A totally different path than heat generating fission, because physics allows that.
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none of the fusion project have reached net energy consistently. that’s a physics problem. what some of the labs have done is got closer. Instead of being half way there —they are now 3/4 -7/8 there. They are so excited about this achievement that they believe that they can be commercial by 2030.
However, they assume that the “last mile” 1/4-1/8 will be easily overcome to net energy will be relatively easy to overcome.
That remains to be seen. What’s certain is that the costs of getting there will be much less than the BS costs of LLNL or the beast at ITER.
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Conversion of fusion reactions directly to electricity is probably a bigger and maybe more difficult feat than achieving net energy itself. I have not seen anyone working on that problem at all. From what I’ve seen, they’re currently they’re just trying to get net energy.