Nuclear fusion - happy coincidence?

[maeveiscurious]

It's now "viable" now western energy sources at risk.

I mean, they’ve been working on it for a while, so yes, I’d say a happy coincidence. And it’s not ‘viable’ it’s just a step closer. Still a way off yet. It’s mainly funded by western countries and has been for over 20 years - have a look at JET in the UK and plans for ITER in France.

I doubt I will see a commercial reactor supplying the grid in my lifetime (I'm in my early 50s)

Don't think so.
Sky news article says it could take decades to make it widely available and Scientists in Oxfordshire did something similar earlier in the year. So it's been planned for a long time.
This one happened last week.
I was excited when I read the headline then disappointed to read the article. Esp when it said it took more every to power up the lasers in the first place!
The safety of producing a 'star' on earth is scary too!

I think we will see it come through quicker than anticipated, energy and clean energy is essential

I cdd as by even think about cern

I am cautiously optimistic that we can reduce the "maybe in 50 years" (which has been the prediction since the '50s) to "maybe in 30 years." But I think that the place to watch is ITER rather than the Inertial Confinement method being used in the States.

Hmmm I’m not convinced. Latest news…It’s taken 70 years to prove that ignition is possible.

Perhaps this is because not much investment and research has been made into fusion until recently.

I think that providing energy cleanly and need to be a top priority.

TBF, all they've done is get more energy out than in; there's a loooong way to go before they can scale it up and make it sustainable. But it's a great start.

No 'happy coincidence' - as people have said, it's been being worked on for a long time and of course it's being taken more seriously now more people are clearly understanding the 'non-renewable' bit of non-renewables.

The research has been going on a very long time to make this happen. Around Culham in the UK there are 4 fusion companies that I know of as well as JET (where I spent a very happy summer as a student), the massive ITER project, and lots of others using different techniques. This weeks news was showing they could make it happen again after a series of failures. With fusion, the devil is very much in the detail and it will be a long time before it is commercial as a power source imo

No, it will be at least 30 years before any electricity is produced in this way.

I got all excited about the possibility of cheaper heating until I read the article and realised I will probably be dead before it comes into use.