this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024
822 points (98.5% liked)

science

14867 readers
149 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

48 seconds. I predict a glut of helium. balloons for everyone

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Probably going to happen. Proxima Fusion is eyeing early 2030s for a commercial prototype and those aren't venture capital techbros, it's a Max Planck institute spin-out. About as hard science as you can get. Wendelstein 7X has shown that the approach works, the thing exceeded all expectations (that is: It behaves exactly as computer models said it would) and scales up without nasty surprises (much unlike tokamaks) so they're done with the tech fundamentals now it's about engineering something cost competitive, think requirements such as replacement parts the reactor will regularly need not exceeding electricity market prices.