floofloofUS scientists achieve net energy gain for second time in a fusion reaction
SibboSo, how long was this reaction? “Brief moment” is not very detailed. At the Wendelstein X reactor, they can keep up a fusion reaction for around half an hour without anything overheating.
Beyond just trying to maintain a reaction, we’ll need a design that allows for the extraction of working energy. At present, all designs require tons of additional energy to keep them cool. We’re very far from any design that is power positive in a real sense. Any time you ask one of the fusion fanboys about this there’s a lot of hand waving, but I’ve never seen any actual proposals to extract working heat from the reactor. Any designs that require supercooling are especially problematic. It’s really difficult to extract heat capable of turning a turbine through the supercooled magnetic containment.
Fusion will happen, but not before a whole lot more money and time (in decades) disappears into the money pit.