UK Seeks Site For World's First Fusion Power Station (sciencemag.org) 47
sciencehabit writes: The U.K. government today invited communities around the country to volunteer a site for a prototype fusion reactor, which would be the first -- it is hoped -- to put electricity into the grid. The project, called Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP), began last year with an initial 222 million pounds over 5 years to develop a design. The U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, the government agency overseeing the effort, says construction could begin as soon as 2032, with operations by 2040.
Still, spherical tokamaks also come with drawbacks. The hot dense plasma in a smaller device is more punishing on materials, so components may need to be replaced more often. And STEP is unlikely to be capable of breeding tritium, one of two hydrogen isotopes that fuels the reactor. Tritium is radioactive with a half-life of 12 years and global supplies are low. A working reactor will have to breed its own tritium by surrounding the vessel with patches of lithium that produce tritium when bombarded by neutrons from the fusion reaction.
Still, spherical tokamaks also come with drawbacks. The hot dense plasma in a smaller device is more punishing on materials, so components may need to be replaced more often. And STEP is unlikely to be capable of breeding tritium, one of two hydrogen isotopes that fuels the reactor. Tritium is radioactive with a half-life of 12 years and global supplies are low. A working reactor will have to breed its own tritium by surrounding the vessel with patches of lithium that produce tritium when bombarded by neutrons from the fusion reaction.
Somewhere, NV? (Score:1)
Re: Somewhere, NV? (Score:4, Funny)
I wasnâ(TM)t aware Nevada was in the UK, but okay, if you want to secede and rejoin the empire, thatâ(TM)s fine.
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It would make more sense for the tiny island with limited resources to join the richest nation on earth. If you get rid of your monarchy, maybe we'll let you in.
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Future Airstrip One scenario detected..
ITER (Score:5, Insightful)
Shouldn't they wait for results from the ITER experiment (expected around 2026)?
Re: ITER (Score:3, Interesting)
quantum particle based technology
What? The Strong force is the most energetic of the four currently known forces. Fission and fusion *are* whatever quantum tech you seem to be vaguely insinuating. The difference between how much coal we need to burn to meet our current energy use and how much hydrogen we would need to fuse is about 10^5. I suppose we could wait for an energy source that is more than 10000 times more efficient than what we currently have, but maybe we should grab the low hanging fruit in the meantime.
Re: ITER (Score:2)
Unless you've got anti-matter, of course.
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Re:ITER (Score:5, Informative)
Different type of tokamak reactor - ITER is a toroidal tokamak, while STEP is a spherical one. Other than pure science, theres probably little that ITER can offer to STEP in terms of technical design support.
Plus ITER isn't due to actually start its intended fusion experiments until 2035.
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Yes ITER is a toroidal tokamak, however by 2026 we should have enough results to show that plasma physics modeling isn't terribly off-base. We don't need to wait for D-T fusion operations for that.
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And given STEP wont start construction until 2032, Im sure that 2026 will be early enough to either adjust the design based on ITERs plasma results or it will still be early enough to cancel it altogether.
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Then in the best case you have to wait to spend the money. In the worst case ITER is a flop and you never get to spend the money.
It's more prudent to spend the money now, while your party is in power and has some say about where it goes.
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Our gov't have lost it, they are on a spending spree wasting money on projects without a good return when the money could be far better spent. It's like our debt is now so big that even big projects look cheap in comparison to the national debt.
A lot of self-employed people in the UK must be laughing all the way to the bank as they are allowed to continue working whilst claiming a grant that gives them 80% of earnings because of some reduction in earnings due to COVID.
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Everytime fusion comes up, the naysayers shut it down and defund it .. virtually guaranteeing "fusion never" .. a self fulfilling prophecy. We could have fusion in well under 20 years .. if it gets real funding.
Re: 40 years now? (Score:2)
If you're trying to plan research... you're gonna have a bad time!
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Wall Street has very little say over the UK government funding.
That's right. They don't need the permission of the UK government to fund energy research themselves.
To me it is admitting failure to go to the government for money to fund energy research. If there's sufficient evidence of success then there will be private investors looking to cash in on it. Insufficient evidence to get private investment means needing to convince politicians to fund it with someone else's money. The politicians can buy votes with taxpayer money on the claims of trying to solve the na
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That's not how fundamental research works. That's never how fundamental research has worked. Fundamental research has always been a collective effort, funded by governments and crazy individuals chasing dreams, not for profit but for science. It's when the fundamental breakthrough happens that industry and capitalism kick in to do applied research on it and make money out of it. Stop believing in de delusion that corporate spending can induce fundamental discoveries. It can not, for it can't explain the cos
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I really want fusion to happen, it would be huge for the whole of humanity. But right now we have a climate emergency and it's not going to be ready in time to help with that, so we have to think carefully about where we use the available funds.
Having said that if we could divert some of the money wasted on fission to it I'd be behind that. We really need to stop throwing good money after bad and at least with fusion we might get a useful return on our investment.
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Everytime fusion comes up, the naysayers shut it down and defund it .. virtually guaranteeing "fusion never" .. a self fulfilling prophecy. We could have fusion in well under 20 years .. if it gets real funding.
I recall this being brought up by Dr. Robert W. Bussard in a talk he made and is available as a video online. The US Department of the Navy was funding fusion energy research as they saw this as valuable for potential use on ships or on naval ports. Dr. Bussard asked for more money but the Navy told him that they had only so much money for energy research, if the request was too large then it falls under the domain of the US Department of Energy. The US Department of Energy is hostile to any fusion resea
Doesn't look like a power plant to me. (Score:1, Informative)
Is this a power plant if they have no plans to produce power? From the article this is a prototype, a fusion reactor that could produce a net energy output but there's no plan to harness this for power to the grid.
Fusion is still a long way away. From what's in the article it's 20 years away at best.
I'm sure these experiments have value but it's not going to solve anyone's energy problems in the near term. They will need more nuclear fission power plants for that.
Tritium is the least of the Tocamac problems (Score:2)
1. It will go through everything
2. It will f*ck up any material and make it a long term radioactive waste disposal problem
It is not anything like the clean energy it is purported to be. Its radioactive waste disposal problems make a nuclear plant pale by comparison.
Re: Tritium is the least of the Tocamac problems (Score:2)
A strong magnetic field contains even the fastest charged particles. .Yes, tokamak is a fundametally flawed design anyway.
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A strong magnetic field contains even the fastest charged particles. .Yes, tokamak is a fundametally flawed design anyway.
A neutron has no charge, a magnetic field will not affect it. One way to get energy from fast neutrons is a fast breeder reactor, a fission device. Another way to get energy from fast neutrons is to slow them down with a moderator and use the resulting slow neutrons to produce fission. Fast neutrons from a magnetic containment fusion device is often wasted energy. There's experiments to use these fast neutrons to bombard some elements to produce helium and hydrogen nuclei, those nuclei can be contained
Harwell, 1957 (Score:3)
The UK has a long history with fusion power. The ZETA [wikipedia.org] fusion reactor at Harwell went operational in 1957. This was one of the first large-scale fusion experiments. It didn't achieve fusion, but it did provide critical information.
Putting the cart before the horse (Score:2)
I suggest: The sky / space (Score:2)
Oh wait, we've alreaey got one! Stop being morons and use that!
Brexit madness (Score:1)
One Web
Super fast Vaccine approval
"First" Fusion power
etc. etc.
It is almost as if the incompetent UK government, having inflicted the Brexit Coup on the UK, is now desperate to fool the moronic minority who voted for it that there is an upside ( because the economic downside is going to be PAINFUL ) and are willing to waste billions on madcap - and sometimes dangerous - schemes.
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More of the same UK government lies today.
See a pattern yet ?
Brexit is going to REALLY SUCK.
https://news.sky.com/story/cli... [sky.com]