• Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    70 MILLION K FOR 17 MINUTES! For a moment, a long moment, there was a sun, here. On the surface of the earth. Inside that room. Contained in that machine. A tiny goddam star. Hate to be a bazinga but human ingenuity is fucking amazing. Love to see what we can accomplish when unburdened by capitalism.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If you can sustain solar temperatures, I wonder if you can do crazy shit like synthesizing elements.

      So, like, fusing your own Francium or Iridium.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          They've got industrial uses. I couldn't tell you exactly what offhand. I know another rare element - Americium - used to be used in fire detectors.

          But since they're incredibly rare, synthesizing more would potentially yield more opportunities for useful applications.

  • booty [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    mr xi pls release the artificial sun :xi-plz:

  • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Is uhhh is this good for bitcoin?


    E)

    Elsewhere, the first viable fusion reactor could be completed in the United States as soon as 2025, and a British company hopes to be commercially generating electricity from fusion by 2030.

    :lenin-sure:

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      a British company hopes to be commercially generating electricity from fusion by 2030.

      yeah and I hope to be emperor of the galaxy by 2030. come the fuck on Britain you're not fooling anyone

      • AllCatsAreBeautiful [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Source of unlimited energy enough to power the entire planet

        Commercially generating electricity

        Br*tain

    • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      a British company hopes to be commercially generating electricity from fusion by 2030

      Expecting this to go the same way as Lucas, a Bri*ish company that made lights for cars/motorcycles/bikes/etc and became popularly known as "Lucas the prince of darkness" because their products would just not stop failing lmao

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Westoid journalists in shambles trying to figure out where China copied this reactor from.

    • AllCatsAreBeautiful [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I am not a science-er but people say that fusion reactors can't have meltdowns the way fission reactors can. Something about how fission is a chain reaction that will keep going and breaking more atoms but fusion is so hard to do that when the cycle stops working in the reactor it just stops. Again my understanding of science stops at "when I try to close the door close to the hinge it's really hard so it makes me feel strong"

      • kristina [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Yeah this is basically true. It's also so incredibly insulated and the heat is at such a small point. Iirc it's also magnetically levitating so it isn't physically touching anything

        This same reactor has been fired up and modified many times. I recall reading an article a year or so back about them having lower temps for half a minute. Really coming along

        Source: I'm the resident science bimbo

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        The problem with a fission reactor is that it's all built around a couple of tons of very angry plutonium or uranium. If things shut down that radioactive metal doesn't get any less angry.

        Fusion, from what I understand, is about using lasers and magnets to force hydrogen atoms to fuse in to helium. Even if something goes wrong, the worst case scenario is a small amount of super-heated plasma that has basically no mass and will cool down pretty quickly.

        I could be completely wrong, though. I am but a humble liberal arts major.

    • Nephrew [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Probably cooled it down in the fridge overnight first, that's what I do

  • culpritus [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    the sun rises in the EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak)