Corey S. Powell Profile picture
Dec 13, 2022 9 tweets 8 min read Read on X
You're about to hear a lot about #NuclearFusion. I've followed the field for years & can offer context. Top line:
- NIF's "breakeven" does not generate more power than it consumes
- NIF is not a model for a commercial fusion reactor
- This news is a big deal all the same. 1/n Target positioners for the National Ignition Facility.
Fusion researchers measure fusion output in "Q," the ratio of power produced to power needed to maintain the fusion plasma. NIF has exceeded Q=1.
Breakeven, right? Er, the accounting is not so simple, as Charles Seife explains. 2/n theatlantic.com/technology/arc… #fusion #NIF
The power that goes into igniting a fusion pellet is much less than the total amount that NIF consumes. "Breakeven" comes nowhere close to covering all of that consumption! A useful fusion power plant would require anything from Q=5 to Q=100. 3/n
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_en… #fusion Photo of the National Ignition Facility.
Also: The National Ignition Facility (NIF) was not designed as prototype for a powerplant. It's a weapons test facility. It cannot quickly produce one fusion blast after another, which is what you'd need for a steady energy supply. 4/n lasers.llnl.gov/about/what-is-… #fusion #NIF Preamplifier at the National Ignition Facility.
OK, so why is the NIF news a big deal?
Everyone knew breakeven fusion was possible, in principle. The challenge was working hard enough (and investing enough) to make it happen. Well, that moment is NOW. 5/n #breakeven #fusion nature.com/articles/d4158… The Joint European Torus tokamak reactor near Oxford, Englan
In 1976, the US govt looked at how long it would take to achieve practical fusion energy, given various funding scenarios. The path we've been on since then is the one labeled "fusion never."
Fusion seemed like a cool idea, but not an urgent one. 6/n #fusion #future
Achieving breakeven is an inspiration to look at what it would take to make #fusion energy practical. Can it be scaled up quickly? Can it be cost-competitive?
There are many private companies working on the problem. I talked to a bunch of them: 7/n medium.com/the-moonshot-c…
A fusion breakthrough at NIF is likely to boost support for big government projects like ITER & drive investment into the more experimental, higher-risk private efforts. That's a formula for more rapid advances. 8/n nautil.us/the-road-less-… #Fusion #Iter #NIF ITER fusion reactor under construction in France.
Fusion would be competing with wind & solar power. But it could be an important source of base load electricity, high-density power for industry, etc. There's a need for something like fusion in the low-carbon world -- I hope it happens. 9/9 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs… #fusion #NIF Crescent Earth seen from Apollo 11 in 1969.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Corey S. Powell

Corey S. Powell Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @coreyspowell

May 8, 2023
I was a NASA intern in the '80s when I heard that astronomers had discovered a mysterious disk around the nearby star Fomalhaut.
Now JWST has revealed exactly what they are: three enormous, dusty asteroid belts around another star!
webbtelescope.org/contents/news-… ImageImage
In the 18th century, Swedenborg, Kant & Laplace proposed that planets form in discs around stars. It took more than two centuries to see they were correct! But now we can observe discs, asteroids, comets, and even colliding planets around other stars.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebular_h… Image
There's a lot more to come. JWST will soon zoom in on 17 nearby stars to observe the planets forming around them.
One puzzle: Why are many other planetary systems much bigger than ours? Is there something weird about us?
nasa.gov/feature/goddar… #NASA #JWST Image
Read 4 tweets
Mar 2, 2023
A new seismic study shows that Earth has five inner layers, not four as long believed. Inside Earth's inner core is an *inner-inner* core, a ball of white hot iron 1300 km (800 miles) wide. science.anu.edu.au/news-events/ne… #Geology #earthquakes Schematic showing the newly confirmed inner-inner core of th
Researchers at Australian National University developed a clever way to sense seismic waves reverberating inside the Earth. Those echoes made it possible for them to sense the growing metallic seed at the center of our planet. nature.com/articles/s4146… #Perspective Diagram of the seismic network used to study Earth's complex
The innermost inner core is Earth's fifth layer. Which means it is the perfect setting for a movie sequel that merges The Core with The Fifth Element.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 24, 2023
If you saw this headline, or one like it, you might reasonably have thought the world has gone mad. The inside of the Earth is spinning backwards?
*But that is not at all what the actual research says.*
[a short thread] #RealityCheck Misleading tweet headline f...
Key point: Earth's core rotates at almost exactly the same rate as the rest of the planet. Did in the past, still does so now. It rotates at the same speed to within 0.001%!
But even the research paper is confusing on that point: #RealityCheck
nature.com/articles/s4156… Schematic of Earth's interi...
What's interesting here is that Earth's inner core rotates *almost* the same as the surface, but not *exactly* the same. It may rotate a tiny bit faster or slower -- and that's not apocalyptic, but it sure is interesting.
sciencenews.org/article/earth-… #Earth #Core Cutaway illustration of Ear...
Read 7 tweets
Aug 1, 2022
Twitter is full of "wonder science" accounts, many of them full of stolen images & misinformation. The recent viral tweet about the alleged void in space offers a good case study in how to spot the fakes. 1/5
Test #1: Who is sending the tweet? Reputable researchers, journalists, and institutions identify themselves. If the account is anonymous and contains no information, you should be suspicious. 2/5
Test #2: What is the source of the information? If there is no source/link (or a generic ID like "NASA"), that's a red flag. It's also a common tactic in bot accounts that scrape or steal images from the actual creators. 3/5
Read 7 tweets
Feb 4, 2022
The true colors of the solar system, a short thread. * First, let's start with the Sun. Can we all agree it's white to the eye?

* inspired by James O’Donoghue & Marina Koren, with some color corrections by me.
Mercury is so gray that it's tough to tell whether you are seeing pictures of it in color or black-and-white. This one is true color, seriously. blogs.agu.org/wildwildscienc…
Venus reflects 70% of the sunlight that hits it, nearly as reflective as freshly fallen snow. So yeah, it is super-white, as you can tell just by looking at it in the sky. nasa.gov/mission_pages/…
Read 13 tweets
Jan 7, 2022
Remember the "mystery hut" spotted by China's Yutu-2 rover on the far side of the Moon? Now we've seen it up close. Behold...a Moon rock. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/VgtehRidYL8-…
Reminder: When you apply a lot of imagination to an image at the very edge of resolution, you're going to "see" all kinds of strange things. The Face on Mars was a classic of this genre.
Fortunately, the universe is full of genuine mysteries. We still don't know for sure whether there is life on Mars!
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(