Tech companies aim to harness nuclear fusion in ways that have never been done before

Long hailed as an impossibility, harnessing nuclear fusion to power homes, businesses, cars, and even airplanes is now widely viewed by scientists and engineers as a very real prospect that would undoubtedly and dramatically reshape energy consumption around the world. Bigad Shaban reports.

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[RMX]

Here is a quote from a member of Alpha Ring.

"We applied electrons to create electron potential difference to trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen and boron, so the temperature is relatively low—just around 1, 000-2, 000 degrees Celsius, but free from radiation pollution, because it is aneutronic fusion, " said Hwang.

Anyone who knows anything about fusion will recognize this as absolute non-sense.
Reaching the peak cross-section (fusion reaction rate probability) for proton-boron fuels requires over 500, 000 volts of potential. The tiny vacuum chambers they are shown using cannot handle such voltages at the fuel densities required for usable power output. The high voltage will arc through the fuel gas, dropping the voltage below levels required for fusion.

Its also ridiculous to think such reactors could be used for civillian transport. No reaction is truly aenutronic, even fuels like proton-boron fusion will have side reactions that will produce neutron radiation. Even with neutron products being less than 1% of the total output, they will still be numerous enough in a system capable of generating power to be dangerous to people nearby.

On top of all of this, the energies required for proton-boron fusion will ensure the production of high energy X-rays, possesing a low enough cross-section of attenuation to punch straight through lead shielding, irradiating anyone in such a vehicle.

These fusion start-ups are just scammers trying to pry cash from uneducated investors. Im not trying to convince anyone that fusion isnt possible, but it certainly wont come about thanks to Alpha Ring. Investment money should be spent on endevours that will actually have an impact on our world.

[edp]

Practical fusion energy is 10 to 20 years away. It is ALWAYS 10 to 20 years away.

[johnh]

Proton - Boron fusion has a lot going for it, but the ignition temperature is about 10 times that compared to DT fusion, and has a factor of 300 smaller cross section. Not so

[tommycollier]

Any day now I have been hearing that for 20 years

[dloui]

wow, congratulation .
finally within the next 200 years we'll be able to use this energy !

[Anhedonis]

I hope this “Mr. Fusion” won’t be as disappointing as the “Hoverboards” we got in 2015.

[drmosfet]

Very little info on their device, but the same old information from the weapon test facility.
The best fusion project they listed was LPPfusion, their approach seems more realistic.
But it's always nice to see more people trying to solve this problem, it should help increase the odds of a solution.

[Warm_Fusion]

I think they are doing electrostatic confinement, they have a new pre-print article on arXiv, compact ion beam system for fusion demonstration.

[Jacobk-gr]

5:38 so its just unstable currently or maybe this is the limit of its stability.

[MarkDanielLouwe]

Hovering cities, space ships and interstellar travel is about to become reality.

[RagingBull-golo]

Anybody who watched Spider-Man 2 should probably know what the consequences of what harnessing nuclear fusion could look like.

[echolima]

It will happen within years with the aid of ai

[thomasgreenfoto]

First of all, we have no idea of the temperature of the center of the Sun. Fusion is already being done with science derived from the Electric Universe concepts via the SAFIRE project with much lower temperatures.

[lyntwo]

I was sold on more cheeper because after all we all really do need more bird cheeps in our life.

What? Not noise but cost. You mean cheaper. So if it is cheap it can be even cheaper by measures of more. Wow. So if it is even more than more cheaper it will really be cheap?

Oh, there is also a quality implied. Cheaply made instead of made for less cost.

I am confused.

[dalegribble]

The technology exists i simply just asked you to make it smaller

[ericheine]

Someone's going to make one with a 3D printer about the size of a lunch box.

[romado]

The first nuclear plant in Chicago was only able to power a light bulb too.

[giftedgreen]

But they can’t get bums off the streets in San Francisco.

[Jacobk-gr]

Private sector because you want money to expand but honestly if you asked the public im sure anyone would love to assist. Just put an ad up but dont make it so hard to get in with all the requirements.

[cattigereyes]

Need more fusion energy!! Need to understand magnetic waves and nuclear reactions better!