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A comment on 14 Year old Thiel Fellow creates his own nuclear fusion plant [video]. Parent comment

Re:14 Year old Thiel Fellow creates his own nuclear fusion p... by arethuza on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @07:52AM (#6767685)
Even ITER won't actually generate usable electrical power - the heat generated by the reactor will simply be used to warm up water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER#Cooling_systems

Actual power generation will have to wait until the follow up DEMO project, which should actually have fusion powered electrical power generation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEMO

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Re:14 Year old Thiel Fellow creates his own nuclear fusion p... by kaybe on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @08:22AM (#6767777)
One of the reasons why the timeline is so long is that a reactor will have to be connected to a system that can exchange the tritium (and deuterium). Now, since both are hydrogen isotopes they can diffuse like crazy. Leaks of tritium are bad because it is radioactive (alpha radiation, which is not so bad unless incorporated, but it's a gas, so yeah). Also, some processing like isotope sorting will have to be in the circle. Right now, all these new technologies are being developed, which takes a lot of work, money, time and PhD students.
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