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vegiimite t1_j0ucrt7 wrote

Reply to comment by BalderSion in How do X-rays “compress” a nuclear fusion pellet? by i_owe_them13

Thanks, I really appreciate this. I had a fundamental misconception about how it would work and the time scales involved. I pictured the interior of the reactor being a continuous hot plasma, not having time to cool between shots.

I guess that changes my opinion to not actually impossible. I still think it is an unlikely path to commercial power.

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BalderSion t1_j0ugo13 wrote

Yeah, and that's probably a fair assessment. Fusion is an optimist's game. For non optimists, the promise is too great to ignore, but it took decades just to get our arms around how difficult it was going to be; hence the fusion is 50 years away and always will be reputation.

I would take this result as proof ICF can generate power, not that it's ready to. I mean, we knew from hydrogen bombs it was possible to get Q>1 from inertial confinement, but not if it could be done with beams like this. Similarly, if ITER gets their Q>10 result in the next couple of years, I would take that as evidence that magnetically confined burning plasmas can be stable, so we'll know MFE can generate power, not that it's ready to.

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