'World's First' Grid-Scale Nuclear Fusion Power Plant Announced In the US (cnn.com) 41
Longtime Slashdot reader timeOday shares a report from CNN: If all goes to plan, Virginia will be the site of the world's first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant, able to harness this futuristic clean power and generate electricity from it by the early 2030s, according to an announcement Tuesday by the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems. CFS, one of the largest and most-hyped nuclear fusion companies, will make a multibillion-dollar investment into building the facility near Richmond. When operational, the plant will be able to plug into the grid and produce 400 megawatts, enough to power around 150,000 homes, said its CEO Bob Mumgaard.
"This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale," Mumgaard said. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement, calling it "an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large." The plant would represent a new stage in the quest to commercialize nuclear fusion, the process which powers the stars. But the path toward it is unlikely to be smooth, not least because the technology has not yet been proved viable.
"This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale," Mumgaard said. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement, calling it "an historic moment for Virginia and the world at large." The plant would represent a new stage in the quest to commercialize nuclear fusion, the process which powers the stars. But the path toward it is unlikely to be smooth, not least because the technology has not yet been proved viable.
Vaperware (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
https://www.fusionindustryasso... [fusionindu...iation.org]
Re: (Score:2)
I’ll believe it when I see it. Some people are definitely going to get rich of the taxpayer trough though.
Why should they? Plenty of elections will take place between now and when they claim this bullshit might
Bubble Investor Trap (Score:2)
IIt's a trap.
a Bubble Investor Trap.
the science (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
The science is more or less settled. It's the engineering - turning theory and math into a real, working machine - that's been the big problem.
Fusion is one of those things where there's no benefit to doing small-scale tests, since it's stupidly expensive and does not scale down well. If you're gonna do it, might as well go all out and build it full scale.
Will this reactor ever be successful? I'd wager not, but I'd be happy to be wrong. Until then I'm not going to waste much time thinking about it.
=Smidge=
Re: (Score:1)
The science is out there (Score:3)
they really should nail down the science on this first. but then again, i heard putin cured cancer.
You do realize MIT made a breakthrough in fusion a year or two ago, had a long video on YouTube explaining exactly what they found, and all that information is available for your perusal, right? And there was an article here on slashdot, right?
Fusion return is proportional to the fourth power of the containment field. By using modern superconducting magnets and some innovative design, they are able to achieve a much stronger confinement. This results in a longer, higher pressure burn (various, depending on
Re: (Score:1)
And there was an article here on slashdot, right?
I think this is the most recent Slashdot article on the MIT breakthrough. https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
(I'm about as pro-nuclear, including fusion, as they get)
They've made compact superconducting magnets that theoretically produce enough confinement to sustain a large gain in power. They will probably break every record yet for fusion power gain, short of a hydrogen bomb. I'm very much looking forward to startup.
However, there are a large number of unsolved problems before they have a commercial grade power reactor, as per the headline claims. So yes, this latest bit of hype is best treated with skep
Blame the boomers (Score:2)
Why people have to be snippy and insulting instead of just asking "what's the science behind this" is beyond me.
Its boomers. They remember the cold fusion breakthrough.
Re: (Score:3)
We'd have practical cold fusion by now, if Adobe hadn't bought it out in 2005 and left it to wither away.
Promises of the future (Score:4, Insightful)
Now we have entrepreneurs promising fusion by 2030. I like fusion, I hope it happens, but somehow I have doubts.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
https://observer.com/2024/09/b... [observer.com]
Re: (Score:2)
In fairness, Gates can afford to invest widely. And why not. It's not like he's gonna live forever.
Re: (Score:2)
Disclaimer (Score:4, Funny)
This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale*
* once we get it working
Re: (Score:2)
That itty-bitty asterisk is carrying a lot of weight.
I wonder if any betting sites have set up a pool for this project?
FYI, it would be wonderful if true. I just do not believe it, being of the generation that knew "fusion is only 30 years away and always will be".
Re: (Score:2)
That itty-bitty asterisk is carrying a lot of weight.
Yes. One wonders if it has an event horizon.
Re: (Score:2)
This will mark the first time fusion power will be made available in the world at grid scale*
* once we get it working
The should run the whole thing with Node.js (Reactor) and employ MongoDB. It's web scale!
Old news (Score:2)
Commonwealth Fusion has had this plan in their press releases for several years now.
Re: (Score:2)
https://blog.cfs.energy/cfs-wi... [blog.cfs.energy]
Re: (Score:2)
Trump says I read it on the Internet, it must be real‘
But Melania‘s tits are all over the internet and they are surely not real.
I own the first FTL ship spaceport (Score:1)
Who writes this nonsense?
Who believes it enough to post it here?
Re: (Score:2)
I own the first FTL ship spaceport
I hope you installed appropriately sized apollo retroreflectors, otherwise it's not up to code and will be shut down.
Politics (Score:2)
"Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement,"
Aren't Governors in VA term limited? So he won't have to explain why it didn't happen while he was in charge..
Re: (Score:2)
"Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin welcomed the announcement,"
Aren't Governors in VA term limited? So he won't have to explain why it didn't happen while he was in charge..
One four year term.
But he will be running for President next.
Sounds like somebody... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like somebody needs some good press before their next round of funding.
only 5 years away... (Score:2)
Not to be outdone (Score:2)
why does the picture show a Chinese tokamak? (Score:3)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/19... [cnn.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Ah interesting: The US led on nuclear fusion for decades. Now China is in position to win the race
Context is important: The US had many of dead-ends that have been abandoned - Fusor [wikipedia.org] (electrostatic confinement)) designs (still very useful, but not as a power source) lead the way for quite a while. Fusors are easily built by hobbyists, even. There was some hope that the Polywell would bring electrostatic to net energy production, but it seems that hope is gone.
The Soviet tokamak (magnetic confinement) seemed (and continues to be) more promising in the late 60's, and with that, most of the world started mo
Nope (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless a major breakthrough was made in the last few hours, sustained artificial over-unity fusion is not a thing yet. Even if you ignore losses outside the actual fusion reaction itself.
I am announcing first transporter technology demo (Score:3)
Also sometime in the 2030's. Still working out the kinks that cause the evil version of yourself to beam in a second later.
Where are they getting the fuel? (Score:2)
I read once that a grid scale D-T fusion plant would burn through the world's supply of tritium in a matter of days to weeks. Yes, it's a by-product of CANDU reactors, but they only produce so much per year, and this reactor is going to be competing for the supply with other industrial and scientific consumers, so the price will skyrocket if they try to buy up the entire world's supply. Are they going to be setup to breed tritium once they are up and running? I'm sure they must have a plan if they are co
Re:Where are they getting the fuel? (Score:4, Informative)
That's why most fusion plants would involve a lithium lining in order to generate more tritium.
Stories like this are why MSM fails (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is the same people are also entirely unable to see when they're being lied to / bullshitted in a different area. As a species, we just aren't skeptical enough in general, and we love when bullshit fits our desired narrative.