Nuclear fusion energy achieved

[BFTD]

Good news if you're concerned about emissions, but surely nobody believes it will ever result in cheap energy. Not while there are shareholders to mollify.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

I was once in a band called Fusion. Think it was about 2nd year at School.

 

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

1 minute ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

I was once in a band called Fusion. Think it was about 2nd year at School.

 

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

Did Nikola Tesla not solve all this about 80 years ago?

Thank you.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

9 minutes ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

Thats me in the middle.

Before it all fell out.

[The Moonster]

47 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Good news if you're concerned about emissions, but surely nobody believes it will ever result in cheap energy. Not while there are shareholders to mollify.

I think people confuse "limitless" with "free". As we've seen this year though, nothing will stop energy companies making obscene profits. Any nuclear fusion will be costed to the punter at a similar or higher rate than now. 

[welshbairn]

Disappointed to see that the main purpose of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that conducted this experiment is nuclear weapons research.

[Detournement]

4 hours ago, The Moonster said:

I think people confuse "limitless" with "free". As we've seen this year though, nothing will stop energy companies making obscene profits. Any nuclear fusion will be costed to the punter at a similar or higher rate than now. 

It depends.

If the technology is world wide and China (sensibly) decides that the state bearing the cost of a resource that is essentially infinite is the most efficient course of action then other countries will have to do the same.

It's like water in Scotland. There's so much of it compared to what we need that there is no point metering it.

[Gnash]

12 minutes ago, Detournement said:

It depends.

If the technology is world wide and China (sensibly) decides that the state bearing the cost of a resource that is essentially infinite is the most efficient course of action then other countries will have to do the same.

It's like water in Scotland. There's so much of it compared to what we need that there is no point metering it.

It still won't be free though.  Either we pay for what we use or pay for the set up and running / maintenance costs via taxation.

[coprolite]

Aren’t we going to need loads of hydrogen and somewhere to put all the helium? 

[Detournement]

2 minutes ago, Gnash said:

It still won't be free though.  Either we pay for what we use or pay for the set up and running / maintenance costs via taxation.

We obviously don't what it will cost but it would obviously be cheaper to make it a common utility rather than a private commodity.

If it was private then it would be a monopoly on a scale never seen before.

[tamthebam]

In the words of Professor Ian Dury

Einstein can't be classed as witless.
He claimed atoms were the littlest.
When you did a bit of splitting-em-ness
Frighten everybody shitless

[Shadow Play]

15 hours ago, sophia said:

It was more than suggesting, the selling point was indeed "too cheap to meter".

For Dounreay the public enquiry on whether it should be built lasted all morning and then they went away and had a good lunch.

The decommissioning though, that's dragging on much longer than they admitted it would and knocks any ferry overrun costs into a cocked hat.

It's costing £3,000,000,000 but we don't talk about it.

 

£3B is such a small amount of money in comparison to how much the energy price cap will cost the Government (estimates are north of £50B last I looked).  I’ve no idea how many people talk about that. 

Incredible when you consider the price cap only covers something like 2 years of bills if  I understand things correctly.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Shadow Play

[Bigmouth Strikes Again]

10 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkay said:

Thats me in the middle.

Before it all fell out.

Still wearing the white lace gloves though?

Thank you.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

2 minutes ago, Bigmouth Strikes Again said:

Still wearing the white lace gloves though?

Thank you.

If you like, aye.

[Loonytoons]

11 hours ago, Detournement said:

It depends.

If the technology is world wide and China (sensibly) decides that the state bearing the cost of a resource that is essentially infinite is the most efficient course of action then other countries will have to do the same.

It's like water in Scotland. There's so much of it compared to what we need that there is no point metering it.

That really isn't true and hasn't been for a good number of years. 

From the Scottish government website:

Charges and billing: non-domestic customers

All non-domestic customers in Scotland are charged on a metered basis unless it is not practical to do so.

 

Edited to add:  There was a massive push to privatise the domestic supply when Scottish Water was created, fortunately such was the political hot potato of the abundance of water in Scotland, that no party decided to run with it (well any party with any sort of clout in Scotland). 

Tory fuckers basically got told where to go.  The utter mess down south is indicative of how this should never be allowed to happen.

Also it might not be metered but expect a fairly substantial hike on your water and sewerage charges on your council tax next year, it's not cheap to provide clean drinkable water.

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Loonytoons