Comment on Inching Toward a Fusion Energy Future | A handful of startups are racing to usher in an era of near-limitless fusion energy, but big questions remain.

• threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I just have a hard time imagining how one would convert a reactor like the NIF have (where tiny gold pellets of deuterium are loaded and blasted one at a time) into something which could power a city.

  A tokamak like the JET or ITER (which can operate continuously) seems easier to adapt into a power plant.

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  • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It’s being worked on. Repetitive shots aren’t as ideal or obvious as a quasi-stable reactor, but a pulsed system will still have its output effectively smoothed in process of heating a thermal jacket or liquid first wall.

    Statistics, high speed computing which I’ve assisted with previously, and other techniques are likely to get the rep rate to at least 1hz with the occasional miss.

    Certainly ironic that we’re making what feels like a nuclear combustion engine. Old tech, same as the new tech…

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