This Nuclear Reactor Just Made Fusion Viable by 2030. Seriously.

[Peter1469]

I know many people harp on Fusion always being decades away. But it is time to change that old canard. We have fusion now. It is here. Making it commercially viable is the next step.

This Nuclear Reactor Just Made Fusion Viable by 2030. Seriously.

TAE Technologies, the world’s largest private fusion company, has announced it will have a commercially viable nuclear fusion power plant by 2030, which puts it years—or even decades—ahead of other fusion technology companies.

The California-based company has raised $880 million in funding for its hydrogen-boron reactor. This reactor isn’t a traditional tokamak or stellarator; instead, it uses a confined particle acceleration mechanism that produces and confines plasma.
All fusion technology has plasma, which mimics the extreme reactions that power all the stars—it’s what we’re emulating when we make fusion energy experiments. “Plasma is an oozy substance; the challenge of containing it is akin to holding Jell-O together using rubber bands,” TAE says on its website.

What is TAE doing differently than the industry’s perhaps higher-profile projects, like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)? TAE’s tech, which is called advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC), uses non-radioactive hydrogen-boron to generate plasma in a carefully contained area. The tech can also work for hydrogen isotope fuels like deuterium-tritium, TAE says. The particle-accelerating beam heats the molecules to plasma status, then the field-reversed configuration keeps it all together.

And the moon has plenty of deuterium-tritium.

[MisterVeritis]

I know many people harp on Fusion always being decades away. But it is time to change that old canard. We have fusion now. It is here. Making it commercially viable is the next step.

We have had fusion devices since the late 1940s. They go boom.

[Peter1469]

We have had fusion devices since the late 1940s. They go boom.

This company's fusion reactor has not gone boom. It just costs more to operate than it returns in energy. A couple of other fusion reactors are likewise operating although they are different designs.

[MisterVeritis]

This company's fusion reactor has not gone boom. It just costs more to operate than it returns in energy. A couple of other fusion reactors are likewise operating although they are different designs.

Nuclear weapons, hydrogen bombs, fission-fusion-fission weapons go boom.

Right. We have heard all this before. Since the 1970s commercial fusion has been just a decade (or two) away. Perhaps one day it will be true.

[Peter1469]

Nuclear weapons, hydrogen bombs, fission-fusion-fission weapons go boom.

Right. We have heard all this before. Since the 1970s commercial fusion has been just a decade (or two) away. Perhaps one day it will be true.

Actually we haven't heard that commercial fusion has been a decade away. They were talking about the ability to create fusion here on earth. We have done that. Making it commercial is much easier that actually discovering how to create fusion. The only holdout is containment, and this new design seems to be solving that.

[MisterVeritis]

Actually we haven't heard that commercial fusion has been a decade away. They were talking about the ability to create fusion here on earth. We have done that. Making it commercial is much easier that actually discovering how to create fusion. The only holdout is containment, and this new design seems to be solving that.

Peter, we created fusion with our hydrogen bombs.

Containment has always been a problem

I hope you are right. I expect we will have similar exchanges in 2030.

[Peter1469]

Peter, we created fusion with our hydrogen bombs.

Containment has always been a problem

I hope you are right. I expect we will have similar exchanges in 2030.

A bomb is not a reactor for providing energy.

[MisterVeritis]

A bomb is not a reactor for providing energy.

LOL. Of course it is.

But I understand your point. You are a true believer in fusion power. I am a skeptic. Make a note to readdress this in 2030.

[CCitizen]

Fusion Power will definitely work. We do not know when, but technology which seems impossible now will become Reality in the future.

[Peter1469]

Fusion Power will definitely work. We do not know when, but technology which seems impossible now will become Reality in the future.

Yes. Fusion is here. The next step is to commercialize it.