[Politics] Nuclear Fusion

[Icy Gull]

There's me thinking you've discovered a new band

Me too, "shit another of Harry's bands I've never heard of being aired and raved about on here"

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

The difference between fusion and fission would be a good place to start.

Fission is the splitting of a heavy, unstable nucleus into two lighter nuclei, and fusion is the process where two light nuclei combine together releasing vast amounts of energy.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Off on a slight tangent, I watched this Panorama programme last night.
Taken at face-value it is utterly absurd how this can be allowed and enjoying [significant] green handouts.
30 mins - worth a watch, I'd heard of wood pellets for home log-burner use but no idea there was a power station in the UK running on them ...

[video]https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001cw6z/panorama-the-green-energy-scandal-exposed[/video]

 

[raymondo]

The difference between fusion and fission would be a good place to start.

That's easy... Seagulls prefer fission chips

 

[raymondo]

Off on a slight tangent, I watched this Panorama programme last night.
Taken at face-value it is utterly absurd how this can be allowed and enjoying [significant] green handouts.
30 mins - worth a watch, I'd heard of wood pellets for home log-burner use but no idea there was a power station in the UK running on them ...

[video]https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001cw6z/panorama-the-green-energy-scandal-exposed[/video]

Yes, the ultimate in green washing...apparently Drax are even cutting some virgin forest in Canada and using whole trees are pellets...? I'd better watch the prog before I get too angry I suppose

 

[boik]

Can't believe that we're not really investing in Rolls Royces SMR nuclear reactors. Cheap, quick to build and fail-safe. I remember reading years ago about pebble bed nuclear reactors that could be delivered on the back of a truck. We're too scared of nuclear in this country to look at the modern options. Everyone just believes nuclear means giant dangerous reactors like Chernobyl, Fukashima etc. And yet we're wasting tons of money on the old style giant nuclear reactors.

 

[happypig]

One thing is certain, if (when) there are viable fusion reactors they won't mean free green energy for all they will mean vast profits for spivs like Elon Musk.

 

[Bakero]

Is this thread just a fission trip for the OP?

 

[Hugo Rune]

"We've demonstrated that we can create a mini star inside of our machine and hold it there for five seconds and get high performance, which really takes us into a new realm."

I don’t think that we should be creating mini stars on this planet. Sounds too dangerous.

 

[Superphil]

Unless it’s going to make the politicians and their funding cronies millions, without threatening their profits from oil and gas, it probably ain’t going to happen.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I believe that Nikola Tesla was on the verge of a discovery that would have meant free energy for all but unfortunately all his notes disappeared after his death.

 

[BrianB]

We have mega tons of timber suitable for pellets sitting in our hedgerows as fallen/damaged trees rotting away making roads uncomfortable ...
Surely not beyond the wit of man to put it to good use?.

 

[raymondo]

Unless it’s going to make the politicians and their funding cronies millions, without threatening their profits from oil and gas, it probably ain’t going to happen.

Much of it will be owned by a Shell company I guess...using profits that weren't taxed properly and green subsidies... hurrah

 

[Superphil]

We have mega tons of timber suitable for pellets sitting in our hedgerows as fallen/damaged trees rotting away making roads uncomfortable ...
Surely not beyond the wit of man to put it to good use?.

If you can write a cast iron business plan for that, with significant profits, somehow exempt from (high) taxation without impacting fossil fuel profits, then I’d imagine Truss and her support teams (Hedgefunds rather than hedgerows) will be all over it.

 

[A1X]

A bold statement from someone who probably had to be told just before going on it’s not pronounced “nucular”

 

[beorhthelm]

I believe that Nikola Tesla was on the verge of a discovery that would have meant free energy for all but unfortunately all his notes disappeared after his death.

Tesla discovered you can gain energy from backroud radiation. this is not scalable to high currents, though it is used in some wireless tech. there's also a version from earth harmonics, dont work. Tesla later work was on transmission of electricity wirelessly, over air or through the gorund, with the idea you have hydro plants sending power to places needed. people mix this up to promote the idea he found some way of generating large amounts of free energy.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

We have mega tons of timber suitable for pellets sitting in our hedgerows as fallen/damaged trees rotting away making roads uncomfortable ...
Surely not beyond the wit of man to put it to good use?.

See post #23 and watch the programme - what you say is exactly DRAX's business model and their rep being interviewed on the programme states this MANY times.
They say they collect sawdust from sawmills etc. but the documentary produces evidence that they are cutting down prime Canadian forestry and converting that in to wood-pellets all while receiving £m's of "green" levy funding handouts.

Mega tonnes available, you say? - I was horrified to hear [see 4:15 in to the documentary] that the power station burning this "green" [ha, yeah right] fuel [wood-pellets] consumes 18,000 tonnes EVERY TWO HOURS and still gives off as much carbon dioxide as COAL!

This needs to be stopped as this is profiteering behind a lie in the name of renewable energy.

 

[US Seagull]

Tesla later work was on transmission of electricity wirelessly, over air or through the gorund, with the idea you have hydro plants sending power to places needed. people mix this up to promote the idea he found some way of generating large amounts of free energy.

Right. He built the Wardenclyffe Tower as a prototype. But his backers weren't so keen on the idea of transmitting electricity wirelessly with no way to bill it. It would have been "free" for the end-user, but definitely not free for the producer, which isn't an idea compatible with capitalism.

 

[beorhthelm]

Right. He built the Wardenclyffe Tower as a prototype. But his backers weren't so keen on the idea of transmitting electricity wirelessly with no way to bill it. It would have been "free" for the end-user, but definitely not free for the producer, which isn't an idea compatible with capitalism.

his backers were fine with the initial concept, just gave up after so much cash burnt without results. this is from a time before our power networks, if it had been successful it could have been the chosen model. its only "free" if you have a zero cost production, even hydro have capital and maintenance cost to be recouped. besides that, you could still meter the over-air transmission if necessary. its all dumb distractions from the basic point his theories didnt work. which is a shame because he produced so much and gets more attention for these failures.

 

[Crawley Dingo]

One of Truss' front bench spokesman announced during Nicky Campbell's programme that Truss would make an announcement on nuclear fusion (as part of our energy plans) this morning, on the back of an 'important discovery' last year.

I can remember Pons and Fleishman's demonstration of nuclear fusion some years ago. It transpired to be somewhat apocryphal.

However, things have come along a bit. If you build an massive machine you can boil 60 kettles:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60312633

And yesterday it was indeed announced we will build a fusion reactor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-63119465

The hope is that it will be operational in the 2040s.

I will await Truss' update this morning with interest.

Meanwhile Kenya is getting close to half its domestic energy from geothermal energy, the rift valley being nearer the hot stuff makes it easy. Let me repeat that, its easy, over a decade ago I read an article in the New Scientist mag that the theoretical enegy potential from geothermal is 2 Billion times greater than wind and solar combined. This is why imo green energy and global warming are just scams, progress requires we need tons of the stuff(energy), or we start going backwards.

Exibit A on why modern education is a failure and why we have stupid and crooked people ruling over us.