Nuclear fusion prototype will be ‘UK’s Nasa moment’

21 comments

1. This is genuinely fantastic so long as we don’t immediately sell it to the highest bidder.

2. this is great news! can’t wait until we all get free energy

3. The potential is only as limited as our vision for it, It could mean massive amounts of almost limitless and nearly clean energy for all

4. It’s a very expensive avenue of of research that is certainly worth following but we’re a very long way from viable fusion power.

   I’m guessing the overpromising is calculated to be worth it to keep investment up, hope it doesn’t eventually backfire.

5. 2040…might be a little late or not. Fusion is always just out of reach. Hope it’s successful!

6. Yeah, knowing how UK works, it either be 50 years late or canceled completely.

7. https://xkcd.com/678/

    ‘We haven’t finished inventing it yet, but when we do, it’s going to be awesome’.

   (Sorry, I shouldn’t be so negative, but given ITER has a 2033 operating date, the idea of a complete STEP design by 2032, built in 8 years feels unlikely.)

8. Spoiler alert, it won’t be UK’s NASA moment.

   Even if we develop something successful, the Chinese would steal the blue print and deliver it faster and cheaper.

   However, more realistically fusion is hard and renewables are so much easier.

9. Practical nuclear fusion energy is ten years away, and always has been.

10. Love this idea. Always cringe when I hear European countries talking about recreating a market that the US has already corned. You hear it all the time: “We need a European Google”, “We want a British Microsoft”, “We need a European Visa/Mastercard”. Think it’s the wrong approach to pile money into something that we’ve already missed in the boat on. And while we’re busy copying America, they’re busy cornering the markets of the future. This is the right way of doing things.

11. Ed Milliband will probably ban it in favour of some more windmills.

12. Assuming this works as intended, please please *please* can we keep it in public ownership and put the income into a sovereign wealth fund, rather than selling it off to the private sector like we did with North Sea oil. That may require people not to vote for the Tories anymore.

13. This is good, I just hope the safety measures aren’t cheaped out on by giving it to politician’s mates to rinse as much profit as possible from with inferior materials.

    Don’t wanna see Nottinghamshire turned into a molten slag pit when containment breaches on a man made sun

14. Watch us sell the intellectual property abroad to the Americans because of the ‘special relationship’

15. Any scientific breakthrough in the UK will immediately be taken by the Americans under threat of sanctions etc.

16. Helion are on track to demonstrate net-electricity this year and are contractually obliged to be powering Microsoft data centers by 2028, with signficant financial penalties if they don’t, so 2040 might be a liiiiiiitle late.

17. “We’re turning science into reality right here in Nottinghamshire. It’s a magnificent opportunity for any region to take on. We’ll see all sorts of new sectors opening up in robotics, AI [artificial intelligence], engineering, manufacturing and materials, and new companies growing.”

    When they wrap it up in this kind of verbiage it just makes me skeptical.

18. I just don’t understand why any of this takes 15-20 years to build.. it’s a money grabbing vapourwear.. at best.

    We don’t even know what the economy will look like in 5 years..

19. Ok, so this is trash news and here is why:

    1) NASA didn’t “spring up” due to some clever idea, and neither will all these sectors they point at. NASA was a sustained investment by the Us government of a HUGE amount of their GDP, on par with their military spend. Idea was, build a big fucking rocket and try and control it. Similar idea here, build a big fucking magnet, fill it with fire, and try and control it (I do actually have a Masters in Physics and know how this works, I’m just oversimplifying). Where is that investment?

    2) Its based on an existing reactor, if this was magic we’d know about it. It isn’t. Fusion is about Scale. It needs to be BIG. ITER is a Tokamak reactor being built in France (UK is involved a bit), they’ve had to build new roads just to bring in the concrete slabs that will hold the reactor. BIG. ITER is only big enough to break even, it won’t produce net energy output. They’ve been building it for 30 years and it’s just been delayed again. This piddly sphere ain’t going to do anything other than get some kids PHDs (that’s a good thing though, I just mean it won’t be economically relevant for maaaaany years and this build won’t be the one)

    Rant over.

20. The UK doesn’t need to compare itself to NASA, there are major tech discoveries and innovations coming out of the UK all the time. This country is a world leader in every area of tech and I am very hopeful we can continue that under Labour.

21. Watch it not happening, just like every other major Investment or r&d. Promises, promises…