Is it just me or is anyone else confused about “solving” global warming/climate change by making a whole bunch of small suns all over the earth that give off a ton of heat to turn water into steam to generate electricity? The average temperature of the earth went up a degree so let’s turn the place into a sauna? 
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I don’t understand enough about it to even comment beyond what I just did. Sorry. I am a dunce seeking intelligence.
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This is cool, but don’t mistake it for anything practical quite yet.
This is about “hot fusion”. Although of immense importance, it does not make a consumer energy-independent, and doesn’t cut the cord to power company. Cold fusion would.
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Cold Fusion is where they want to get.
Many years out still unfortunately.
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How long until I can put a “Mr. Fusion” on the back of my flying DeLorean so I use trash to power my time travel?
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After spending 8 years on nuclear submarines, let me try to break this down…hope this helps…
In layman’s terms we either marry the atoms or we divorce the atoms!
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So… when a neutron and a U-235 atom really love each other, they produce more baby neutrons… 
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Fusion will revolutionize the world… IF they can ever do it efficiently (i.e., more energy out than what goes in)…
If they do, sell your solar and wind and oil stocks… And expect the economy to collapse.
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Wouldn’t worry too much, we’ll be speaking Mandarin or national language turns to Spanish long before fusion becomes a household word!
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亲爱的主，我希望不要…
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Sorry, I gave you a thumbs up for not making a comment on the technology! You are a wise man!
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Ever since I was a child they have been giving the same old “Nuclear Fusion is 10 years away.” I am nearing retirement. I find it unlikely that they will find a solution soon. However, there are thermal issues with fusion, however I do not see a fusion reactor in everyone’s garage or backyard. Inconvenient facts about fusion:
- We have barely enough Tritium (Hydrogen 3) currently to experiment with due to the fact a fission reactors using Highly Enriched Uranium is needed to produce it. They are currently shutting down NPP’s creating a greater shortage.
- The reactor vessel’s will become highly radioactive due to neutron bombardment, so they are not waste free.
- We may not use Hydrogen Isotopes. We may find that we need Helium 3 (Best source is on the moon.) or other light elements. Perhaps we are not on the right track.
- To start fusion reactions in all the tests that they have done, massive amounts of electrical energy are needed. Windmills won’t cut it. We need nuclear fission reactors first.
Even when Physicists figure out ways to beat the break even point (more energy produced than put into the reaction) There are many engineering challenges that will need to be met. Cold fusion has been brought up, and there is evidence that it may occur but it may ultimately be unlikely.
Yes, I admit that I may be wrong, true science challenges old thought and sometimes creates new paradigms. Science is never settled unlike the belief of some politicians that “the science is settled.”
Worth mentioning, Philo Farnsworth did design a fusion reactor and it is “easy” enough to be built by hobbyists and some high school students. The problem is you stop adding energy, the reaction stops. One will never reach the break even point. These devices “The Farnsworth Fusor” are small and take up very little space, about as much space as a large air compressor or a household 5000 Watt Generator.
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Actually, it is not accurate to say the earth’s temperature has gone up a degree They can only say that for a relatively short time span the “average” range was around one degree. No one can say that the starting point for the “average” is indeed the average. All in all just your average climate change rhetoric.
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Interesting to note that a small low yield Hydrogen bomb is also called a neutron bomb. They still need a fission core though (an atom bomb.)
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I would not invest in backyard fusion reactors anytime soon. Just speak some gobbledeegook, build an impressive looking mock up, watch the funds poor in from investors who hear the words “unlimited green energy.” Oh yeah, have a website, a YouTube video and a nice looking prospectus.
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How and when will it impact my monthly power bill?
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Washington Post is misinformation.
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But take your pick of the news sources. They’re all printing copies of the same article these days.
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Fusion is not a solution for Global-Warming-caused-by-Man. Mainly, because the problem does not exist. I stay vigilant for this kind of language, and when I see it, I anticipate anti-science and propaganda, perhaps mixed with scientific message.
How far away is fusion? Consider this - fusion is cheap, unlimited energy, it is synonymous with freedom itself, particularly cold fusion. As such, I expect folks in power to have agendas extremely hostile to this kind of research.
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It will make your bill more expensive for decades, while they throw billions more into it while simultaneously restricting our abundant supply of natural resources. It’s another money sink hole opportunity, where the money just disappears…like that which is sent to Ukraine.
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