this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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Companies say they're closing in on nuclear fusion as an energy source. Will it work? (www.npr.org)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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For decades, government scientists have toiled away trying to make nuclear fusion work. Will commercial companies sprint to the finish?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Most highly sought-after technologies 'take time', and develop in an iterative fashion called 'successive approximation'.

Heckling from the sidelines is what is known as 'being unhelpful'.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I am not 'heckling from the sideline' to the ppl working on it. I am just 'heckling from the sideline' the media for trying to generate clicks with such headlines.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

It would have been achieved by now if it had more than just token amounts of funding.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You're completely missing the point. Yeah, this stuff takes time, and it will continue to take time. The point is, this article saying we're "closing in on it" is clickbait garbage that's just as useful as the one a decade ago saying we are "closing in on it", and a decade before that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So you're unimpressed with what's been going on at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory? Where they've induced a fusion reaction for a net energy gain? And repeated with better results?

Were we achieving net energy gain a decade ago? The decade before that?

Is net energy gain the goal? If so, does repeatable demonstration of the phenomena mean that we are closing in on it, or does it mean that we are moving further away from it?