Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Wendelstein 7-X Fusion Reactor Produces Its First Flash of Hydrogen Plasma (gizmag.com)

Posted by timothy on from the only-wafer-thin dept.

Zothecula writes: Experimentation with Germany's newest fusion reactor is beginning to heat up, to temperatures of around 80 million degrees Celsius, to be precise. Having fired up the Wendelstein 7-X to produce helium plasma late last year, researchers have built on their early success to generate its first hydrogen plasma, an event they say begins the true scientific operation of the world's largest fusion stellarator.

5 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. This is completely awesome by Kobun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And I wish them godspeed. Energy and information are the fundamental limits of the human condition. Fundamental leaps in either arena will be transformative.

    1. Re:This is completely awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Now all they need to do is put out more energy than they are putting in and we can call it generation.

    2. Re:This is completely awesome by Rei · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There will never be an "energy independent world". But what one can accomplish is of course highly dependent on how much energy can be provided for a given amount of money (where the concept of "money" is basically an IOU for human labour... all costs, eventually, trace back to human labour)

      Of course, cheap energy costs can have disadvantages... it all depends on how we choose to use it. For example, with our greater ability to "make things", it would be quite possible that mining would dramatically increase. On the other hand, we could take a more modest quality of living improvement and dedicate more resources toward recycling and living with lower environmental footprints - even using the energy to drastically reduce our footprint (such as intensive light-driven grow ops, freeing up farmland). It all depends on the choices we make as a society.

      All of that said... this is way premature. We don't even know that this sort of technology will - anytime in the remotely near future - prove to even beat current sources of electricity on price, let alone dramatically outcompete them. One can hope, however.

      --
      It's times like this I wish I had a friend named 'The Professor'.
    3. Re:This is completely awesome by voss · · Score: 3, Insightful

      One problem for the "evil cartel" Patents are only good for 20 years and even if the energy itself is free maintenance of the power lines and distribution equipment costs money.

    4. Re:This is completely awesome by Kobun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Obviously, there's no way fusion results in free energy. First, let us count the advantage it provides:

      * Virtually free & unlimited fuel.

      Now we count some of the impediments:

      * The machine to create fusion needs to be meticulously manufactured.
      * Infrastructure to distribute the power needs to be built and maintained.
      * The very best fusion reaction we currently know about ( p + B ) still generates side-reactions that produce Neutrons. There will be radioactive waste to deal with.
      * Neutron flux means that the difficult to manufacture machine will need ongoing maintenance.
      * The lack of a viable mass-scale superconductor means that many such fusion plants will be needed.

      Neither of these lists are complete, obviously. But I feel that they do an OK job to demonstrate the point.