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A comment on Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs gold per gigawatt. Parent comment

Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by modeless on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:08PM (#44610795)
The gold is a byproduct of generating the electricity. You still get to sell the electricity too.
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by dwattttt on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:15PM (#44610859)
Gold is atomically heavier than iron, fusing gold costs energy. The language in the article is ambiguous, but I believe the energy quoted is a cost.
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by floxy on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:23PM (#44610929)
They are engineering their tritium breeding to produce excess neutrons to transmute the mercury to gold.
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by modeless on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:16PM (#44610872)
It's produced from mercury
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by MrLeap on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:25PM (#44610942)
Right, fusion stops being a net producer of energy on atoms heavier than iron.

A star’s fusion reaction ceases when too much of its core turns to iron.

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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by modeless on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:37PM (#44611041)
Mercury is heavier than gold so it's a fission reaction.
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by MrLeap on Friday July 18, 2025 @08:29PM (#44611383)
Ah yeah, that slid by me.
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by amelius on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:18PM (#44610889)
Yeah, but the gold price is going to drop ...
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by oh_my_goodness on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:11PM (#44610825)
Wait, really?
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by one-note on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:12PM (#44610838)
> Using our approach, power plants can generate five thousand kilograms of gold per year, per gigawatt of electricity generation (~2.5 GWth), without any compromise to fuel self-sufficiency or power output.
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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by snickerdoodle12 on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:12PM (#44610837)
Third paragraph from the post, in bold:

> Using our approach, power plants can generate five thousand kilograms of gold per year, per gigawatt of electricity generation (~2.5 GWth), without any compromise to fuel self-sufficiency or power output.

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Re:Marathon fusion claims to invent alchemy, making 5000 kgs... by floxy on Friday July 18, 2025 @07:13PM (#44610849)
Yes, that is their selling point

https://www.marathonfusion.com/alchemy.pdf

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