KSTAR fusion reactor in South Korea

[Jlabute]

We have an official 20 second record with plans to achieve 300 seconds (5 minutes) by 2025.


https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/12/25/korean-artificial-sun-kstar-sets-the-new-world-record-of-20-sec-long-operation-at-100-million-c/

[Sonny Taylor]

Quite a lively discussion going in the comments of that page; even some talk about "Cold Fusion".

I had wondered lately whatever happened to cold fusion as I hadn't heard anything about for years. It seems that the idea has been mostly discredited by mainstream science, and there are only a small number of researchers working on the idea.

University researchers are often unwilling to investigate cold fusion because they would be ridiculed by their colleagues and their professional careers would be at risk.

By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead, and cold fusion subsequently gained a reputation as pathological science.

This from a lengthy Wikipedia writeup about the subject.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion

I guess I got the answer to my question. Too bad; nice idea anyway.

[Jlabute]

Yes, actually there are some interesting comments. Cold fusion was discredited quite a while ago. Not to mention, there are various forms of current fusion reactors under construction that we know won't work or will have insurmountable issues. We relate high temperatures (thermo-nuclear) with fusion, and I'm unaware of examples of fusion in nature at low temperatures. Time and energy is being placed in to high temperature, high neutron designs today. Some are saying aneutronic is better (hydrogen - boron) and are theorizing with different fuel types and reactor designs. We really are in an infancy moment of fusion development. New movement is happening in the area of Focus Fusion reactors. There is also growing skepticism towards tokamaks (ie. ITER) being viable.

https://lppfusion.com/technology/fusion-energy-generator/

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/12/31/nuclear-fusion-the-great-clean-energy-hope/

LPPfusion has ordered a beryllium anode. Thought it would had been funny if it were sphere shaped (Galaxy Quest).