I plan to be rich next year!
I find it odd they are going with a Tokamak design which has been tested for decades and has issues that require complicated engineering to solve Magnetic confinement of the plasma being the massive one I have to wonder why they are not going with a Stellarator design Maybe their engineering and science isn’t up to it
could be advancements like this that now make it possible https://interestingengineering.com/energy/china-achieves-fusion-milestone-neural-networks
You should let them know, they might need your expertise.
Isn’t fusion power not as clean as people say it is?
The Practicalities of actual fusion reactors make this seem a lot less appealing than I think I grew up hearing.
I’m happy to see china continue to pump resources into their clean energy mix, but at the same time it feels like this entire concept might end up being more of a meme than we think.
probably said will be ready in 20-30 years and got mistranslated
Probably pulled that out of your ass.
fusion power will be ready in 20-30 years is a decades old meme
It’s a decades old Western capitalist meme.
no fun allowed outside western capitalism?
Tokamaks are useless.
First wall problems compounded by geometric constraints, fueling, magnetic & corresponding mechanical complexities, particularly over long periods of time where material fatigue sets in due to coils applying heavy, dynamic loading… there’s a lot against tokamaks.
They seem to impress people, and we could all use novel research into MHD. But @Blackdoomax@sh.itjust.works is kind of correct.
Tell me you don’t know what you’re talking about without telling me you don’t know what you’re talking about
Man, I wish we (Canada) were that ambitious. I know lemmy hates Elon Musk but I really admire his ambition in technical pursuits. I’m not saying we need more Elon Musks, but we should pursue more grand projects.
“His” All he does is ketamine and buy-up companies that already exist. His workers have all the ambition, however misplaced.
Good luck to them!
I think the only major contribution to humanity the CCP I would respect would be fusion research.
It’s not complicated, just stupid expensive and politically impossible, but if they can figure it out, they have truly provided a transformative humanity.
Fusion reactors are incredibly complicated… This is a research reactor, with the goal of figuring out how to create sustainable fusion for real world uses by 2050.
This is not a performative action for a determinative outcome, this is aspirational and has no guarantee of achieving its goals, which is good. This type of research and science needs to be funded, even when it may fail.
Maybe this will spurn competition between powers to accelerate their own fusion reactor research, and create a virtuous cycle that accelerates this technology becoming a major source of green energy in the near, or medium-term, future.
I like democracy, but I don’t like our short-sighted (4-8 year) election-campaign-based governing. But between our public and private sectors I know we can meet this challenge and make this happen.
I disagree on the private sector aspect of this, but I agree on the democracy part. Although, I don’t really view America as true democracy at this moment in history, but that’s besides the point here.
Fusion technology is at a point in its life cycle where it needs to be a public sector project. There is no path to profitability in the near-term, that would justify private sector involvement, except as a means to extract profit from the very expensive research process of even making this technology feasible.
Not that I’m against the private sector within the nuclear power industry. I’m very excited to see what they can do with SMR technology. I’m just extremely skeptical of most private-public partnerships, especially in cases like this.
I would greatly prefer public sector development. I’m just being fatalistic about how our oligarchy conducts itself.
One way they conduct themselves is by using the politicians they’ve purchased to advocate for forming public-private partnerships, in areas where they shouldn’t exist, which they can then legally siphon off the resources from.
I’ll relay this to Xi Jinping immediately he’ll be glad to know of your approval
They’re doing pretty well with solar and electric vehicles too
And poverty eradication. And high speed rail. And smartphone and chip tech, and space program… kind of a long list.
If only we dissolved all nation states and lived in communes that best reflect everyones individual values.
Mine would have nukes, because I will never trust humanity, no matter how good things get.
Your commune would be super lucky if it had anything because small communes (especially isolated sects “never trusting humanity”) are not the best places to make even things like glasses, not to mention atomic weaponry.
It’s silly to act like individual values are some sacred, unassailable thing gifted to everyone’s soul by the heavens, rather than something that came from a combination of inborn human traits and memories*, i.e. they are something that is contingent, changing, and in no way above being questioned.
It’s also silly to act like it makes sense to just have a blanket acceptance of something if it’s an “individual value” even though, when we look at the world, individual values can sometimes be extremely fucked up and we shouldn’t allow people who would enact those values to abuse with impunity.
*“memories” is simplistic, but I don’t think it is catastrophically so.