<story><title>MIT-designed project achieves major advance toward fusion energy</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2021/MIT-CFS-major-advance-toward-fusion-energy-0908</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rnhmjoj</author><text>&amp;gt; But are they surmountable AND cheaper than existing nuclear or other energy sources?&lt;p&gt;DT fusion solves the two biggest arguments that are always raised by nuclear energy opponents: storage of nuclear waste (it doesn&amp;#x27;t produce high-level waste) and safety (it&amp;#x27;s not perfect but it can&amp;#x27;t explode). I wouldn&amp;#x27;t call it a &amp;quot;meh&amp;quot;, even if it comes off as much more expensive than fission.</text></item><item><author>anonuser123456</author><text>&amp;gt; What&amp;#x27;s the catch this time?&lt;p&gt;This is D-T fusion.  Which means you have to have T.  Which currently comes from fission reactor and has a half life of 15 years.&lt;p&gt;So the plan is to use a molten salt blanket with Be to breed T.  But Be isn’t scalable for consumption, so maybe lead eventually.  That’s probably do-able, it just slows down the rate new reactors can come online since Pb is not as good a neutron multiplier.&lt;p&gt;Once they breed extra T, they have to capture and refine it.  Hydrogen is very corrosive and hard to work with… and T is radioactive hydrogen.  Again, probably doable.  But guess what?  Refining spent nuclear waste in fission reactors is also do-able.  It’s also super expensive.&lt;p&gt;And they still need a containment vessel that will withstand the wear and tear from sitting next to a mini hydrogen bomb all day.&lt;p&gt;These challenges are likely all surmountable.  But are they surmountable AND cheaper than existing nuclear or other energy sources?  Meh?</text></item><item><author>shmageggy</author><text>These university press releases are always very positively framed. This one makes the new magnet seem incredibly promising and fusion seem like almost an inevitability now, but decades of failure have us conditioned for skepticism. What&amp;#x27;s the catch this time?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>danans</author><text>&amp;gt;   I wouldn&amp;#x27;t call it a &amp;quot;meh&amp;quot;, even if it comes off as much more expensive than fission.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not competing with fission, though.  It&amp;#x27;s competing with renewables + storage + load shifting + efficiency.   Compared to those, it might indeed be &amp;quot;meh&amp;quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>MIT-designed project achieves major advance toward fusion energy</title><url>https://news.mit.edu/2021/MIT-CFS-major-advance-toward-fusion-energy-0908</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rnhmjoj</author><text>&amp;gt; But are they surmountable AND cheaper than existing nuclear or other energy sources?&lt;p&gt;DT fusion solves the two biggest arguments that are always raised by nuclear energy opponents: storage of nuclear waste (it doesn&amp;#x27;t produce high-level waste) and safety (it&amp;#x27;s not perfect but it can&amp;#x27;t explode). I wouldn&amp;#x27;t call it a &amp;quot;meh&amp;quot;, even if it comes off as much more expensive than fission.</text></item><item><author>anonuser123456</author><text>&amp;gt; What&amp;#x27;s the catch this time?&lt;p&gt;This is D-T fusion.  Which means you have to have T.  Which currently comes from fission reactor and has a half life of 15 years.&lt;p&gt;So the plan is to use a molten salt blanket with Be to breed T.  But Be isn’t scalable for consumption, so maybe lead eventually.  That’s probably do-able, it just slows down the rate new reactors can come online since Pb is not as good a neutron multiplier.&lt;p&gt;Once they breed extra T, they have to capture and refine it.  Hydrogen is very corrosive and hard to work with… and T is radioactive hydrogen.  Again, probably doable.  But guess what?  Refining spent nuclear waste in fission reactors is also do-able.  It’s also super expensive.&lt;p&gt;And they still need a containment vessel that will withstand the wear and tear from sitting next to a mini hydrogen bomb all day.&lt;p&gt;These challenges are likely all surmountable.  But are they surmountable AND cheaper than existing nuclear or other energy sources?  Meh?</text></item><item><author>shmageggy</author><text>These university press releases are always very positively framed. This one makes the new magnet seem incredibly promising and fusion seem like almost an inevitability now, but decades of failure have us conditioned for skepticism. What&amp;#x27;s the catch this time?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>speed_spread</author><text>It sounds like the T production chain might itself be quite messy. Molten isotopes salt and lead? How much of that stuff would you need? What do you do with when it goes bad? It may not go boom Chernobyl-style, but it&amp;#x27;s still far from the birds-in-the-sky deuterium-from-the-sea fusion dream.</text></comment>