Germany, long a poster child for anti-nuclear sentiment following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, is now making a sharp pivot: the country is backing nuclear fusion research as a key part of its clean energy future. The move contrasts with Berlin’s 15-year retreat from nuclear fission, which was driven by safety concerns that led to the closure of reactors and a commitment to renewable energy.
The shift indicates increasing confidence in fusion technology, which offers nearly limitless energy with minimal radioactive waste. Unlike fission, fusion reactions are inherently safer, and recent experiments have begun to produce consistent net energy gains, a milestone first achieved at the [U.S. National Ignition Facility](https://www.llnl.gov/news/ignition?utm_source=chatgpt.com) and later repeated several times.
However, bringing fusion to commercial use will take time. Thomas Forner, CEO and co-founder of Focused Energy, predicts that fusion power could be operational within a decade—if a reliable industrial supply chain can be developed to produce the large quantities of specialized steel and thousands of custom parts required for a plant.
Jagneetoe on
Pie in the sky, they should never have shut down their existing fission (real and actually work)power plants, causing them to become reliant on Russian gas which emboldened putin to invade Ukraine, since he knew countries that relied on Russia for energy wouldn’t be too keen to stand up against him. Germany is being run by retards of the highest calibre. Makes me wonder if there is some sort of glue huffing ritual one has to do to get into the German government.
can someone please explain to me why americans think fission and fusion are basically the same thing and not light years apart? and that going from fission to fusion is not just a continution of fission?
are ppl really that uneducated?
dgkimpton on
Ah yes, let’s put all the hopes behind an unproven and radically dangerous technology in preference to a long established technology with lots of understanding. At least pursuing something like Thorium would make more sense in the short term.
At this point we have nothing but hope that Fusion reactors will ever produce stable net positive power without huge ongoing refurbishment costs. They might, I hope they do, but it’s hardly an energy strategy.Â
SampleFirm952 on
It’d be easier to put a solar panel in space and beam the energy to the earth than to make fusion. Honestly.
6 Comments
From the article
Germany, long a poster child for anti-nuclear sentiment following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, is now making a sharp pivot: the country is backing nuclear fusion research as a key part of its clean energy future. The move contrasts with Berlin’s 15-year retreat from nuclear fission, which was driven by safety concerns that led to the closure of reactors and a commitment to renewable energy.
The shift indicates increasing confidence in fusion technology, which offers nearly limitless energy with minimal radioactive waste. Unlike fission, fusion reactions are inherently safer, and recent experiments have begun to produce consistent net energy gains, a milestone first achieved at the [U.S. National Ignition Facility](https://www.llnl.gov/news/ignition?utm_source=chatgpt.com) and later repeated several times.
However, bringing fusion to commercial use will take time. Thomas Forner, CEO and co-founder of Focused Energy, predicts that fusion power could be operational within a decade—if a reliable industrial supply chain can be developed to produce the large quantities of specialized steel and thousands of custom parts required for a plant.
Pie in the sky, they should never have shut down their existing fission (real and actually work)power plants, causing them to become reliant on Russian gas which emboldened putin to invade Ukraine, since he knew countries that relied on Russia for energy wouldn’t be too keen to stand up against him. Germany is being run by retards of the highest calibre. Makes me wonder if there is some sort of glue huffing ritual one has to do to get into the German government.
[traveling wave reactors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor) could be a much viable alternative
can someone please explain to me why americans think fission and fusion are basically the same thing and not light years apart? and that going from fission to fusion is not just a continution of fission?
are ppl really that uneducated?
Ah yes, let’s put all the hopes behind an unproven and radically dangerous technology in preference to a long established technology with lots of understanding. At least pursuing something like Thorium would make more sense in the short term.
At this point we have nothing but hope that Fusion reactors will ever produce stable net positive power without huge ongoing refurbishment costs. They might, I hope they do, but it’s hardly an energy strategy.Â
It’d be easier to put a solar panel in space and beam the energy to the earth than to make fusion. Honestly.