What does /sci/ think about fusion power plants?
Will this technology solve all energy problems in the near future?
It really fascinates me since I'm about to finish my engineering degree and they offer jobs at Max-Planck-Institut for Plasma Physics.
>>7956799
Fusion solves nothing. Perhaps you need to stop being so delusional.
What do you mean? Because they'll never have success in their research? Sorry I'm not a scientist, I just started to learn more about fution power.
All the time "you can't get more out than you put in" is hammered into our heads but yet when it comes to fusion we're expected to throw that logic out the window.
It's a meme. Not viable
>>7956838
>you can't get more out than you put in
wtf are you talking about?
How do you think fuel works?
>>7956853
The efficiency factor of fuel used e.g. in a Otto engine is actually pretty low.
>>7956891
patently false. combustion efficiency in modern engines is really fucking good. its thermal efficiency that you are talking about, and thats only because of material limitations.
>>7956910
Sorry, my mistake. Combustion efficiency is way better, of course.
So but fusion power on the sun is not a meme, why wouldn't it be possible simulating this process on earth?
if the sun is a giant fusion reactor the why can't we just connect some wires to the sun
>>7957004
it's called lightning
>>7956985
thats a matter of scale. the sun has the advantage of a really powerful gravity well to contain everything.
>>7956985
Takes a shitload of pressure and heat, so much so that we have trouble finding materials to withstand said pressure and temperature
>>7957020
ASDEX Upgrade.
>>7956985
>>7956799
Net-energy fusion was achieved rather easily back in the 50s. Ever since then, the struggle was been to scale it down to a more familiar and manageable rate.
The trouble is, there's no real reason to expect that it's possible to scale it down so far.
Just as fission reactors need a critical mass of fuel, or something very close to it to be practical, fusion reactors need to be working with a sufficient mass of fuel that the fusion output keeps ahead of the heat losses of a very high temperature plasma.
The smaller you go, the harder it is. Turbulence thwarts attempts at the perfect confinement supposed in ideal models, and more and more resources are thrown at achieving the ideal symmetry of mathematical fantasies.
Bunch of supposed scientists fighting nature in absolute confidence of defeating it.
