Will Nuclear Fusion Come Soon Enough to Avoid Climate Crisis?

Nuclear fusion is the holy grail for limitless green energy, but will it come soon enough to avoid the worst of the climate crisis? Mathematician Hannah Fry explains how it works, and why it’s so difficult to create.
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Do you want to know what your future holds? A life beyond 150 years old? A world where computers can read our emotions? A planet transformed by unlimited clean energy? Mathematician Hannah Fry will explore these questions and more in the new series The Future With Hannah Fry, debuting on Bloomberg Originals on Feb. 22.

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[mikebeatstsb]

Where's the rest ...? Only a minute n half long

[OutOfNameIdeas]

Nuclear is the cleanest energy source up to date. Only downside is the very easily managed byproducts. But overall less resource demanding and less pollution then making solar panels etc

[tysonfromearth]

For those who want to know if fusion will replace fossil fuels in time to mitigate climate change, no.

The ITER pathway forecasts fusion energy won't touch the grid until the '50s or '60s.

Other projects say they will get it done sooner, but it's hard to say how accurate that is because, among other reasons, they want funding, and sometimes people embellish when they want funding.

[TheYahnetstar]

*"Difficult"(maybe)...but not impossible...*

[revcrussell]

Betteridge's law of headlines says no. Reality says no as well.

[serdradion]

Maybe some space particles flux power station in the orbit with wireless energy transfer to the Earth's surface will do the job instead.

[LaplacianFourier]

I was so distraught for a while because I’ve seen this woman before but I knew for sure it wasn’t from Bloomberg!!! I just caught up that she’s from Numberphile. How did she make the jump? 😮

[Dimaz]

what would happen if the plasma touched the side of the structure? 🤔

[pdelong]

That opening was a bit cringey.

It's dangerously oversimplifying, IMHO, in that it implies two things: only fission can occur in nuclear detonations, while fusion does not (which is false); and likewise that only fusion can be used to generate power in a controlled fashion, while fission cannot (also false).

I'm going to blame the writers for that one, and not Hannah Fry (hopefully, those aren't the same person).

Also, nothing in the piece addressed the title at all. But I'm going to assume that's because it's just a teaser for a longer video to come.

[chrismv]

Yea so? Telling us something that anyone who reads a paragraph of fusion development history knows. What a waste of effort...gfx's too huh? Spend the effort to give us more information than this.

[venkatraoirla]

WHILE DEVELOPING A PROCESS WE FIRST NEED TO THINK HOW IT GOING TO IMPACTTHE PLANET.

[albiceleste]

No. Say they take 20 years to develop them, another 10-15 to build the fusion plant, that's already too late!
Climate needs immediate action

[SpikeyTech]

Nuclear fusion is very promising, but there's little reason why we shouldn't be using fission in the meantime.

[peterknutsen]

0:09 Why is she showing fusion of two relatively heavy atoms?

I mean, it's possible, but you're not going to get much of a net gain from fusing somrthing so heavy.

[Kiss__Kiss]

Incredibly difficult... For humans on earth, unfortunately. That's where Theoretical Physicists come in.

[imalimabeanyay]

Rich people have known for decades that earth doesn’t make it to 2050. The 1/400 figure for the 2042 planet killer is optimistic at best. Its end times. Better hope musky boy can keep humanity going.

[philippesails]

BS, in the recent milestone achieved, the electrical energy required to trigger the process is 8x the energy created by the fusion! 😂😂😂

[chi-jenyang]

We have enough thermal nuclear warheads to wipe out all the greenhouse gas sources on earth. Leaders of the world just have to push the button.