Comment by HelloUsername
5 days ago
Related?
Nuclear fusion: New record set at Chinese reactor EAST https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42854306 28-jan-2025
5 days ago
Related?
Nuclear fusion: New record set at Chinese reactor EAST https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42854306 28-jan-2025
From the announcement, "1,337 seconds: that was how long WEST, a tokamak run from the CEA Cadarache site in southern France and one of the EUROfusion consortium medium size Tokamak facilities, was able to maintain a plasma for on 12 February. This was a 25% improvement on the previous record time achieved with EAST, in China, a few weeks previously."
1,337-second burn.
Lots of leet scientists there, in all seriousness. CEA is my alma mater, though I worked on quantum computing, not fusion.
how many more seconds did they push it to hit 133t xD
Considering it's fusion we're talking about, 1,337 seconds is about as arbitrary as 1,000 seconds. On a 24-hour clock, 13:37 is 1:37pm. 137 is the fine-structure constant or α. Who knows what they're actually capable of. A second more at this point would be pointless.
I wonder how much of an effect this kind of truly international (not in the same 'bloc') competition will have on budgets and speed of progress. Cold war tech race, etc.
It should be a good time to be an engineer.
It's always a good time to be an engineer. These public comps are more recruitment and training. It's not like new discoveries are made during these events. It's partly a party for the industry.
Still 50 years away...
our physics teacher at school (late 90s) already joked that "usable fusion power is only 30 years away, for 30 years in a row now"
A relative of mine told me that in 1960s they were saying fusion was only 10 years away
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Ok this was a terse comment, but so is a downvote. Please explain why is not 50 years away from first real industrial use. I am waiting....
https://youtu.be/RbZ-XYy0k10
As for "why not 50 years", even the pessimistic reports of that video have it at ~30 years. Besides, the point is "we won't really know a good estimate for when until it's already about to hit us in the face" not "we should just assume 50 years is a more correct guess than other ones".
As for the comments about votes, they aren't a measure of terseness either. The point is to bubble comments likely to result in curious and thoughtful conversation to the top while comments which will distract from that kind of conversation (combative, vague, distractly offtopic, or whatever else the reason may be) tend to get hidden away. Whether a comment is totally on the money or absolutely incorrect, how you present the conversation starter has a far bigger drive on what types follow-on conversation will appear. Here, that also strongly implies what types of votes will appear too.
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https://news.mit.edu/2024/commonwealth-fusion-systems-unveil...
So according to the industry leaders, we will have the first 400MW plant within 10 years.
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"I am waiting..." was unnecessary.
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