Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2003
- Messages
- 58,805
I don't Iter will be the solution. Laser fusion is far ahead and past break even.
Not even close to break even
Depends how you measure it. Energy produced by fusion has exceeded energy input to trigger the fusion, and if that's your metric, then yes, we're past break even. But this is a somewhat arbitrary and useless milestone. In order to generate power, you need to compare total energy spent (not just energy pumped into the reaction) to useful energy captured (not just energy released by the reaction. That has to get past break even for power generation to even be possible, and we aren't close to that point. And even when we get to that point it won't be enough, because you don't only need to generate net power, you need to generate enough net power to be economically worthwhile.
I don't know if laser fusion or magnetic confinement will get there first (or at all), but we're a long, long ways away from that end goal.