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scrooplynooples t1_j265nkb wrote

I’m probably one of the few people on WSB that has contacts at LLNL and I’ll tell you what they told me… the significance of this was that they were able to create a net positive exchange of energy, ie, the reaction they created had a higher output of energy than it took to create it. Practical nuclear fusion is still years and years away, the science and technology to handle that much energy for common use has not yet been invented either. In order for it to dump renewables we would need widespread implementation of fusion engines as well as the infrastructure to disseminate it.

The conclusion you jump to ignores a lot of S&T groundwork and news outlets only care about headlines and sensationalism to draw in views.

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Rough-Lavishness-401 OP t1_j26ondd wrote

First of all that's awesome! So basically although it was important, right now it doesn't change anything and it won't change anything in the near future for the energy sector?

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scrooplynooples t1_j26q8h7 wrote

It’s a monumental step in the right direction.

An analogy I would relate it to is the invention of the printing press. Controlled fusion energy is like having the internet, and LLNL has just invented the printing press, figuring out a way of creating literature consistently and in a form that doesn’t require anywhere near as much effort as writing every single letter in a book.

But that is still a very long way away from information being able to be transferred the way the internet can transfer it.

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