[aMorePerfectUnion]

Now, now, I am-old enough to remember FReepers posting here that it was impossible and a scam.

[Alas Babylon!]

Too good to be true...

But if it is, wow!

[rktman]

More here:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4115610/posts

😁👍

[who_would_fardels_bear]

It's not clear what they mean by "net energy gain". Is this just the net energy gain associated with the energy put into fusing the elements and the energy that comes out?

Or does the net energy gain also include the energy required to maintain the magnetic field, the energy losses in converting fusion energy to useful work, etc.?

Some estimates are that workable fusion reactors may have to release at least 20X the energy directly used to fuse the elements in order to account for all of the other losses in a typical real-world power plant.

[SuperLuminal]

Hogwash, IMHO...

[Rebel_Ace]

While this is an important engineering milestone to be sure, what they are certainly going to report is that they triggered a reaction that released more energy than was used JUST to start it.

This would NOT account for all the additional energy used to RUN the other components of the reactor, and as yet, no one has developed a practical means of collecting the released energy in a usable form (to generate electricity for the power grid, for example).

I’m not trying to be a wet blanket here, just trying to maintain that these positive steps are still in the “baby steps” category.

[algore]

there will be no real world uses for maybe only 10 or 20 years

[Secret Agent Man]

I don’t believe anything coming out of the government anymore.

[Skywise]

Yeah - given this administration and it’s propaganda arm, I’m calling BS.

[upchuck]

FReepers wishing to avoid a trip through msnland, and all that implies, can find the original article posted here:

https://archive.vn/GqfcE

[upchuck]

... develop a technology that provides unlimited, cheap, clean power...

That is the last thing progressives want. Unless, of course, they control it.

[DannyTN]

Great!!!

That should put us about 20 years away from having fusion..

[Olog-hai]

In the decades scientists have been experimenting with fusion reactions, they had not until now been able to create one that produces more energy than it consumes. … …

Here we go again. Conservation of energy be damned; fusion is magic because we say so.

[Bullish]

How conveniently unbelievable from this regime full of liars.

[Lazamataz]

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...It comes as the Biden administration is prioritizing fusion energy research in its climate and energy agenda.

Great! It'll become practical in only 20 years, too!

[ApplegateRanch]

Does it run on turkey guts?

[fso301]

The scratched fusion record is still cycling through the lyrics "With more funding, it'll be ready in another decade".

[BubbaBasher]

Producing it isn’t the problem. Re-producing it is.

[maddog55]

Should be an interesting announcement...

[norwaypinesavage]

Now, after about a century of trying, we’re able to ignite fusion for a fraction of a second and get more energy out than was put in - sort of. that’s only counting the actual energy put into the lasers, not all of the energy to power the laboratory that did it. And all this was done to a tiny thimble of gold, the size and shape of a dime that contained a few specialty molecules of hydrogen. It’s a great start, but there’s a long way to go.

Keep in mind that this is just the effort to START a fusion reaction. The biggest problem with fission reactions back in the 1940s was to STOP them. Remember the guys with axes standing over ropes holding up boron control rods in the first fission reactors who’s job it was to quickly cut the ropes if the reaction ‘got away’. That’s what a nuclear bomb is: a fission reaction that ‘gets away’.