This is a constant issue with the marketing of fusion. Currently I consider a jobs program for atomic physicists. I basically agree with Charlie and that of short article and to ITER and criticism of ITER. So, what I'd like to do is comment on this issue and try to translate it into English so we can understand it and collectively discuss it...in the same language. I hope Les chimes here as well given his physics background....
There are few basic components of fusion. Simply put, raising a fuel (usually an isotope of hyrdogen) to a few million degrees cause the fusion of atoms which would release a lot of heat. Collecting heat, make steam out of the fluid (could be water, could be CO2, could be Helium, it doesn't matter). QED. Basically what a nuke or conventional thermal gas or coal plant does. So until recently the ability to fuse those atoms together could only be accomplished for nanoseconds (a billionth of a second). Seems, via the first article that Hari provided they made this fusion reactor last over 400 seconds. That is a big deal, I don't want to down play it. But what is the meaning of folks at who write the criticism (from the link Charlie provided) to the ITER (the big international financial vacuum cleaner that promotes and researches fusion)? So...the big engineering goal of maintaining a fusion reactor has achieved something. That ITER did was to state/suggest that not only did they maintain this reaction of 403 seconds but it "produced enough power for 200MW net energy" enough to power "200,000" homes. This is where the deceiving comes in and ITER was called on it. You will see in the article provided by Hari, that that they claim a "thermal output of 500 MWs". The 200MWs from the fact that to recover that energy in the form of electricity, it's only real usable output, means converting thermal energy, written as this "500MWt"...the little "t" means thermal to real energy used in one's home means one can only really get 33% MWe (the little "e") meaning "effective" or "electricity". That has nothing to do with fusion and everything to do with thermodynamics of steam power which is what we are talking about the end of a day. That is where the "200MWs" come from. And that is "honest" in that if thermal MWs are stated it is good to 'translate' that into real energy. FYI: energy is expressed as above, in "MWs". Power is expressed in MW hours...that is how long can something provide X number of MW hours to the grid. On your utility bill it is expressed in terms of usage in KW hour, or 1/1000th of a MW.. So..the kicker. The measurement of the input power to create the heat to effect fusion in this experiment is measured at the point of ignition or, a little back from it where whatever device is used to create this plasma emanates from (electrode, high power laser, etc). For a few years they (this fusion community) have achieved "net" output...more electricity comes out than was used to create the fusion. This was also the goal. This has happened for some years none, albeit only measured in nanosecond and no measured in actual second and minutes. The ITER *lied about* was leaving it stated like this. And this is a regular happening in fusion press releases. To "create" that power...which was in any event 220MWs...means a lot MORE power had to be input from the grid to charge and maintain that charge on the huge capacitor banks (or whatever quick release energy storage they used) than what was measured at the time in terms of "input energy". This group, ITER, and others, know this better than anyone yet it never seems to make the press release. A + b = ignition. A being the GRID power to charge the device, which is b. They always seem to leave out A. David -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#34900): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/34900 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/110864699/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
