Science!! Fucking magnets, how do they work?

Tuco_sl said:

Come on guys, it's bullshit.

There's a long line of reputable laboratories that would jump at the chance to verify his device. He's using labs that are credible enough to get him another round of investors but not respectable enough to demand enough access and information to properly test his system.

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This.

You know guys... the fact that it glows orange is very telling. This is supposed to be COLD fusion. That shit should glow translucent! Or like a faint purple or something. Actually... what color is "cold"? Orange, blue, red and white are all "hot" colors.

Green and violet are cold, duh.

BurnemWizfyre_sl said:

100% without a doubt in my mind, if that fucking thing is the key to cold fusion I just can't imagine living in a universe where that is possible. I honestly think it would be a valid concern that if whatever the fuck is in that picture isn't something someone pulled from a toilet and is indeed the key to cold fusion, god exist and he is fucking trolling us.

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This would be Hitchhiker's Guide levels of universe trolling.

If a fuel can be manufactured easily but requires high energy inputs then that's fantastic actually.

There are plenty of places where electricity generation is absolutely not a problem at all, it is just that they are generally not near where we want to use that energy. Geothermal, hydro, even tidal power is cheap as dirt in specific locations.

We've got lots of electrical generation capacity. What we don't have is a general-solution generation capability that can be deployed anywhere we might want it, although nuclear comes pretty close.

Northerner_sl said:

What we don't have is a general-solution generation capability that can be deployed anywhere we might want it, although nuclear comes pretty close.

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Isn't one of the major limitations of nuclear the fact that plants must be located near a large body of water for cooling purposes? Which pretty much requires them to be located in areas extremely prone to a multitude of natural disasters?

Cad_sl said:

Uhh, the point of the new reactor design is that the fusion isn't a net energy loss.

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Isn't all energy production a net loss? Just that there are forms of energy that have nothing to do with us, like fossil fuels and fusion and solar and geothermal, so it'll never be a loss in our context?

But if you use 1g of fuel to gather .9g of fuel maybe that's not sustainable.

Why don't we just -give- Iran molten salt and thorium test reactors? Just give it to them and tell them if they use them we lift sanctions, which is in effect a subsidy. Literally everyone wins.

For nuke plants you have to fashion those man made cooling ponds. I think the most recent nuke plants had to have them specifically be man made and self contained... so you don't get seepage of mutant water leaking into the water cycle. But I dunno. I just know two of them, and they both had man made resevoirs.

From what I can tell they have either a) come up with some bitching new compact magnets or b) refined and modified the geometry even more than a spherical tokamak to achieve a very high "beta" (ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure) and thus a lower energy very compact design.

If you can easily grab deuterium and tritium then a compact fusion reactor is a win-win.

If you have to manufacture it via electrolysis then it would still be a win in terms of compact energy storage and transport. Huge solar power factory in the middle of the desert which cranks out deuterium during the day which can easily be stored and transported is a net energy loss but very useful since electricity use has to match generation in most contexts... can't be easily stored. Remember that nominal solar flux is about 1370 W / square meter at our distance from the sun. Its just a matter of how to most efficiently transfer and use that energy.

If you want a very compact energy source (for a spaceship or an airplane) then this is a good thing as well because you don't have to overstress about the fuel storage and how much room it takes up. Then again I wonder how sturdy such a reactor would be... jostling it around is probably not a great idea in terms of robust functionality.


Here's the most informative article I have seen so far :Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details | Technology content from Aviation Week

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