What is it they are building?

https://typeoneenergy.com/tva-and-type-one-energy-accelerate-fusion-commercialization-in-tennessee/

 

 

 

...and two steps back...

 

 

US fusion startup makes history by converting plasma energy directly into electricity

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The mechanism relies on a direct energy converter positioned at one terminus of the magnetic mirror apparatus. As moving, electrically charged particles arrive at this end of the device, the converter forces them to decelerate. This deceleration process creates an electrical potential difference, which subsequently forces a current to flow through the connected circuit.

This approach eliminates the requirement for conventional thermal systems, like steam turbines, to extract power from that specific segment of the plasma energy.

 

...and two steps back...

I liked the 'press releases' high energy comment. Very comical.

 

Quantum computing wielded to create extremely rare material critical to nuclear fusion

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... tritium, a radioactive isotope, is extremely rare; only 44 pounds (20 kilograms) of it is produced on Earth each year, and its 12-year half-life makes it difficult to use in nuclear power plants.

 

Quantum computing wielded to create extremely rare material critical to nuclear fusion
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When you look into the details of these reactors it turns out to be very sad. The engineering problems yet to be solved are still very difficult.

When we think of the reactor probably the first thing that comes to mind is the magnetic field confinement and how it seems to work pretty well in experiments. The only thing you don't hear about very often is what it DOES NOT confine. It confines the plasma, but it does not confine the blast of neutrons. Each neutron travels at a significant fraction of the speed of light, and has a relatively tiny energy level, relative to what we as humans are used to. With the energy of one of those traveling neutrons we might be able to cook a trillionth of a trillionth of a french fry in a microwave oven, but to an atom, it's like a BB flying through a spider web. It easily breaks up the lattice of atoms and causes some of the displaced atoms to knock into other atoms and mess them up too. The result is limited working time for the metals (or other materials) that line the reactor shell inside. The cost result is monumental in the 10's of billions and very time consuming. It could take a year to replace the inner walls with the use of special robotics. The downtime alone makes the whole technology completely absurd, not viable at all.
The only solution seems to be walls made of possibly a liquid metal which can recover from the neutron streams. From what I had read there has been some small scale success with that idea, and it seems to be the only real solution at least with the DT reaction reactors (which seem to also be the most viable as I have read now).

It's a shame that such a valuable technology is so hard to get working. I guess I have to give them credit for at least trying. I'd hate to have to work on any of this myself. I guess I have to stick to paying the electric company every month for energy that seems too overpriced. We had some significant down time recently too due to very strong storms in the area over the past few days.