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[deleted] t1_iwhz0y0 wrote

Reply to comment by purple_hamster66 in A typical thought process by Kaarssteun

> You’re missing a key feature of fusion energy… we don’t know how to do it and it’s likely we’ll never figure it out.

That's an odd claim.

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darthdiablo t1_iwi2r8l wrote

Yeah - unless I'm mistaken, I thought it was more like we know how fusion works, the problem is it's a matter of figuring (engineering) how we can make fusion happen on a smaller (non-stellar-scale) level?

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Nieshtze t1_iwihufm wrote

It is easy to perform fusion in a non-stellar scale. They did that in the 50s with hydrogen bombs.

The challenge is controlling the reaction.

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[deleted] t1_iwij5em wrote

[deleted]

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-ZeroRelevance- t1_iwimwko wrote

Hydrogen bombs are a mix of fission and fusion. They create an explosion like a standard atomic bomb using fission, which superheats the hydrogen in the bomb to initiate a fusion reaction, which increases the energy output manyfold.

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purple_hamster66 t1_iwzijto wrote

Controlled fusion, for the purposes of energy production, is not a solved problem. Yes, we can maintain the conditions for about a picosecond. That’s what I mean by we don’t know how to do it.

When I say it’s unlikely we’ll ever figure it out, well, that’s because the new experimental designs using plasma and huge powerful magnets are proceeding, but a single fault or destabilization in the mag fields holding the 100Mº hydrogen and the entire place will explode. Adding 100Mº to the atmosphere is a big issue, and one that’s not likely to help with global warming. The risks are too big to continue this experiment, politically. Nuclear bombs mostly destroy due to the pressure waves they create, and this explosion would rival a bomb’s destructive power... it could kill an entire city. If it ignites the atmosphere, the only thing that would save us is the low pressure of atmospheric hydrogen, which means it could exhaust it’s fuel supply eventually.

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