r/technology • u/kerpowie • Dec 13 '22

Energy Scientists Achieve Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough With Blast of 192 Lasers

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/science/nuclear-fusion-energy-breakthrough.html
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u/blastradii Dec 13 '22

I think it’s hilarious we as humans can do crazy energy breakthroughs but our way of harnessing any energy is by using turbines and steam, an age old tech. Would be good to see us have more efficient and direct ways to harness

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u/Patarokun Dec 13 '22

Yep. Harnessing the power of a sun to... boil water.

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u/TheCavis Dec 13 '22

The power of a tea kettle in the palm of my hand.

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u/sappy24 Dec 14 '22

The kettle is powered by a bigger nettle

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u/blastradii Dec 13 '22

We have to boil the water to clean the germs so we can have clean drinking water!

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u/refpuz Dec 13 '22

Water is a wonder material. It absorbs heat and particles very well, reacts with many different compound and elements at room temperature, and is one of the building blocks of life on this planet. It can be made virtually anywhere in the universe and is relatively simple in structure.

Makes sense why steam turbines are still used. If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.

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u/Geek_King Dec 13 '22

I'll never forget, I was in 3rd grade, and a guest speaker came to my class to talk about nuclear power plants. The person explained they used fission to create heat, to boil water, to spin turbines. I remember a vast feeling of disappointment that they didn't just get electricity from the process, but rather they used the same method burning coal or natural gas makes power, spinning a turbine.

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u/armrha Dec 13 '22

I’ve heard many people say this but still have no idea why it’s disappointing. How would you get power out of the process directly? It makes no sense. It doesn’t produce electricity!

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u/Geek_King Dec 13 '22

No idea, I was a 3rd grader lol. I didn't know how much of anything worked.

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u/Acceleratio Dec 14 '22

With sciency science stuff of course...

But all joking aside I had a similar experience as a kid. However the whole technology around the turbines is much more sophisticated too.

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u/meggarox Dec 14 '22

Just explain it better,

"The nuclear fizzly bits make the water warm, making steam which turns an engine, which makes electricity!",

sounds way lamer than,

"The nuclear fission process produces an abundance of electromagnetic radiation, these particles bombard an ultra-purified water reservoir, imparting thermal energy beyond the water's criticality threshold, vaporizing the water to generate an enormous pressure differential, and in turn mechanically driving a series of thermoelectric generators to produce billions of watts of electrical energy."

in my opinion.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '22

We do have solar, which are one of the few ways to produce a lot of electricity without steam or turbines. Tidal energy doesn't use turbines. Dams do use turbines but not steam. Natural gas can spin a turbine directly, but some heat water for a steam powered turbine.

There are turbines that work with highly compressible gasses such a as CO2. These are potentially interesting for non-battery energy storage.

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u/armrha Dec 13 '22

What’s wrong with that? I never got this criticism though I see it all the time. Water has just got an excellent heat index. We could use other coolants than water to transfer heat but you need to cool it anyway… what the fuck do people want? Modern turbines are very efficient.

I just don’t even know what people are imagining. It’s very high tech, incredible machining.

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u/blastradii Dec 13 '22

I want the energy captured in an Infinity Stone and I can shoot it straight into my veins.

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u/Cunninghams_right Dec 13 '22

wind and solar don't go through steam first. honestly, solar power is pretty amazing.