World’s first nuclear fusion plant being built in US to power Microsoft data centers

[southwest88]

True, fusing hydrogen into helium only creates more helium, a safe and relatively safe and an inert element.

But I wonder what would happen when the 'magnetic containment bottle' containing that 100 million degrees Celsius material has a gap or a breaches in that magnetic field.
With the amount of energy that would be released, would it be like hydrogen bomb going off?

Yah. See - (See the first comment.) Apparently there would be a nuclear radioactivity release event, but not as serious as a standard nuclear water to steam fission meltdown. Still not something you'd want to be around.

 

[southwest88]

In case you weren't duly informed, solar only works when the sun is up, which is about 8-9 hours a day in the Winter, and peak electricity usage occurs well after peak sun.

Yep. This availability issue is an argument for solar energy collectors in geostationary orbit (polar?) - & then beaming the power down to collection centers, which would then connect to the standard electrical grid. The sun is always shining, barring catastrophe.

 

[eohrnberger]

Yah. See - (See the first comment.)

This reads like someone who knows what they are talking about. Thanks!

Apparently there would be a nuclear radioactivity release event, but not as serious as a standard nuclear water to steam fission meltdown. Still not something you'd want to be around.

Agreed.

 

[bythoughts]

Nuclear fusion is something we've been looking for for a long time.

But when you combine cheap, inexhaustible energy with an equally inexhaustible market in cryptocurrency one-upmanship and AIs used to surveillance, evaluate, prosecute and persecute the common man, it's not going to be pretty. Not in terms of the effect of all this power, nor in regard to the endless fields of ever-running fans drowning out every bird in the world with their noise.

 

[Goshin]

Err.
What's going to happen when 100 million degrees Celsius material escapes its magnetic bottle, which has failed or lost power, and that material comes into contact with matter that is at room temperature?
Seems to me that's going to led to a violent reaction, just on a temperature differential basis, and also because hydrogen is very reactive and highly flammable.

Why would 100 million degrees Celsius material coming on contact with room temperature matter NOT be a violent reaction?

Granted it might seem reasonable to assume that. I assumed that myself, before I did a fairly extensive study of fusion power.

The plasma is extremely hot but very thin. It cools very rapidly on contact with materials which are at normal temperatures, and without magnetic confinement disperses into a very thin cloud within the reactor.
It is less a matter of the superhot plasma inflicting catastrophe on normal materials, as the thin plasma being extinguished almost instantly on contact with room temperature matter.
Look it up, it is very interesting reading.

 

[eohrnberger]

Granted it might seem reasonable to assume that. I assumed that myself, before I did a fairly extensive study of fusion power.

The plasma is extremely hot but very thin. It cools very rapidly on contact with materials which are at normal temperatures, and without magnetic confinement disperses into a very thin cloud within the reactor.
It is less a matter of the superhot plasma inflicting catastrophe on normal materials, as the thin plasma being extinguished almost instantly on contact with room temperature matter.
Look it up, it is very interesting reading.

OK. You've got some sources which are claiming that scenario.

Then, we also have this scenario:

Yah. See - (See the first comment.) Apparently there would be a nuclear radioactivity release event, but not as serious as a standard nuclear water to steam fission meltdown. Still not something you'd want to be around.

I feely admit that I don't have the background, nor knowledge specific to fusion reactors, but I do bring my common sense, and the cited quote just seems to make more common sense to me, at least right now, without further reading.

 

[Deuce]

True, fusing hydrogen into helium only creates more helium, a safe and relatively safe and an inert element.

But I wonder what would happen when the 'magnetic containment bottle' containing that 100 million degrees Celsius material has a gap or a breaches in that magnetic field.
With the amount of energy that would be released, would it be like hydrogen bomb going off?

No, not even close. They don't stick an entire nuclear weapon's worth of hydrogen in at the same time.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

In case you weren't duly informed, solar only works when the sun is up, which is about 8-9 hours a day in the Winter, and peak electricity usage occurs well after peak sun.

Batteries my friend Batteries

Sodium ion batteries used to store electricity,

Cheap and long lasting

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

True, fusing hydrogen into helium only creates more helium, a safe and relatively safe and an inert element.

But I wonder what would happen when the 'magnetic containment bottle' containing that 100 million degrees Celsius material has a gap or a breaches in that magnetic field.
With the amount of energy that would be released, would it be like hydrogen bomb going off?

From what I understand not much would happen, without the containment field the fusion reaction would fizzle out

 

[CaughtInThe]

The Trump Administration is literally killing some sources of power so that they can enrich the oil companies.

Now maga, any of you guys, tell me how killing energy sources helps anybody? It just makes us more dependent on fewer things and foreign countries.

 

[Noodlegawd]

Batteries my friend Batteries

Sodium ion batteries used to store electricity,

Cheap and long lasting

If they were available, cheap and long-lasting, CA would be brimming with them, and electricity would be practically free. Instead, I pay 75 cents per kwH.