"Listened to a guy talk about commercial fusion reactors coming soon. Said they are about the size of a tractor trailer. All thats needed is Lithium and water. has 10 to 1 energy output to input or better. Cheap & easy and it’s coming."
We're not there yet, but today's news flash plus tomorrow's announcement (if it is correct) takes us lot closer.
If correct, it demonstrates that fusion DOES work - and that is probably the biggest milestone in the whole game.
If correct, it will result in an absolute tidal wave of money going into lots of companies and startups working on this. Some of them will get results, some won't, and some will be total scams (so be careful and know who is pitching for your money!)
I think it is too early to say what flavor or flavors of fusion reactors will work. We now know (tentatively) that fusion does work (but stay tuned for the "official" release) using lasers and deuterium.
It may be too early to say if the lithium plus water device works, but rest assured that whoever is working on it will be absolutely delighted by the news, and it will turn on the money faucet for their version - which may or may not work.
There are a number of other systems being developed as well. One is the Tokomak, which uses very strong magnetic fields to guide and channel the super-hot plasma (which would burn right through anything it contacted). Tokomaks are supposed to run continuously, the laser plus deuterium device is pulsed.
"It will devastate the fossil fuels AND the “green energy” junk like solar panels & windmills."
Agreed. Solar and windmills will still have a place in remote areas and similar. Solar takes very little maintenance (wash them off every couple of years), but windmills will probably be a dead issue. Expensive, high maintenance, complicated and nobody wants them around.
"It WILL cause an explosion in EV’s and they will finally be charged without fossil fuels!"
Correct!
"No more transportation of fossil fuels, no more power plants, far fewer rail cars or tankers.
A new world! Hope its true"
We will be seeing soon if this is all going to work out. I sure hope it does, because it will also take care of global warming, which takes care of sea level rise and a host of other problems caused by fossil fuels and carbon emissions.
While a huge amount of work and money has been required to get to this point, if in fact it DOES work, as the man said "You ain't seen nuthin' yet."
There will still be a market for fossil fuels, our tractors, airplanes, ships (although if the fusion plant can be made small enough, ships could be powered that way as well), but it will be nowhere near as vast as the fossil fuel market is today. Coal is done, end of story. OPEC is going to fade away for lack of demand (Break my heart, OK? See my tears?) and if the money faucet for the middle east's oil reserves gets turned off, there are going to be some huge political changes there when the "oil weapon" doesn't work any more.
Whoever gets this right is going to make Musk and Bezos look like paupers.
Best Regards,
Mike/Florida