/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10972507
inb4 someone calling you a normalfag because of reddit tier youtuber thumbnail

>>10972507
This is the scientific equivilent of a child asking "are we there yet?" 5 minutes after a car trip has begun. Things take time, it's not like fusion reactors will just appear all over the world over night, give it a little wait. There's several things like getting sustainable funding and actually building the damn things that needs to be done before we can "have it".

>>10972551
>This is the scientific equivilent of a child asking "are we there yet?" 5 minutes after a car trip has begun.

Not really because here the driver constantly said "20 years from now" for the last 60 or so years.

>>10972507
Fusion energy is the second most important invention mankind will ever make (Fire is number one).
Right now we are at the prototype level with ITER.
We really are 20 years from the prototype reactor being built and tested.
It is taking so long because this is the FIRST one and everything is being done for the first time (all the software to control all the new devices is being written, no one knows exactly how thick the pipes should be, what is the best materials to use, what are the most common sites of failure, etc.).
Once a working prototype is done and has a few years of experience, THEN the first generation production reactors can be built.
So 20 years till prototype reactor built, 10 years of experience, THEN the first generation reactors will be built around 2050.

>>10972654
>Fusion energy is the second most important invention mankind will make (fire is number one)
Why is that? What is so great about fusion power? What will we be able to do once it's able to be used?

>>10972507
Thermonuclear fusion reactors are tricky but if you have anti-gravity it gets a whole lot easier. The real issue here is that anti-gravity tech is way more dangerous than nukes, for a number of reasons that are likely obvious to all but the layman. If everyone had a relativistic kill missile for a car and a thermonuclear fusion, sun in a box generator with a little star the size of a golf ball, the world becomes an impossibly dangerous place.

Fusion isn't difficult it's already understand how to create fusion power. The problem is containing it.

>mfw someone makes fusion work and commercialize it in the 2020s

>>10972694
>2060
>fusion reactor meltdown vaporizes the entire planet
>welp

>>10972672


>>10972672
Fusion power will litteraly be the key to having unlimited power. Unlike fission, fusion types into the power of chemical bonds. It's the same stuff that powers stars, like our sun. We could extract enough power to light up a city for a whole year with something the size of a cat. That's why it's so important.

>>10972672
It's fision without the radioactive waste, I'm guessing

>>10972672
>Why is that? What is so great about fusion power? What will we be able to do once it's able to be used?


Fire allowed mankind to populate the world.
Fusion allows mankind to populate the universe.

>>10972710
>>10972704
Seems fairly based. What would I have to major in to work with something like this?

>>10972727
>What would I have to major in to work with something like this?

Depends, CS if you want to write software
Material Sciences if you want to work on the materials
Physics if you want on the science
Electrical Engineering if you want to design the electrical systems
Nuclear engineering if you want to work on the radiation details
Etc.
There is no ONE major

>>10972700
You can't fuck up fusion.
>reaction somehow gets too hot
>the reactor melts and plasma goes everywhere in the reactor room
>plasma hits the walls and cools off
>or someone makes a hole in the reactor
>plasma flies out, hits wall and cools off

>>10972741
>plasma flies out, hits wall and cools off
more like plasma rapidly expands with the force of a nuclear explosion and destroys the entire power plant

>>10972732
What do I have to major in if I want to be in charge of the people who work on fusion research? I don't want to be a cuck with a boss I'd rather suck politician dick for funding that's more fun.

>>10972507
Right now the problem with fusion I believe is that it takes more energy to contain the fusion than what it creates. Stars have the luxury of their massive gravity to keep everything together, whereas we need to expend energy in magnets to contain the fusion somehow. There's been alot of designs of on how to do this, but it takes millions to build these experimental designs and not one has yet achieved a positive energy rate.

Imagine if the 11 trillion that went into the Middle-Eastern wars went into science instead....

>>10972753

>>10972754
Computer Science. Social Engineering is the real deal nowadays, and it's only through social software that you can reliably achieve this and push the public to support your goals.

Sucking politician dick is pointless because by the time you get to position where you can actually do something, you're so tied up in deals and handshakes that you can't actually achieve anything.

>>10972755
>Imagine if the 11 trillion that went into the Middle-Eastern wars went into science instead....
I don't think throwing more money at the problem would help. The main issue is not enough researchers and you can't magically create smart people (yet). There's just not enough people capable of doing the research most people are dumb shits.

>>10972507
The physics for fusion is solved, what's holding us back is the engineering part of it.

>>10972759
>dude thousands of kilograms of plasma heated to 6000K totally wouldn't destroy the entire power plant
this is like really basic shit bro

>>10972767
There's not meant to be more than 100 kg of fuel in a fusion reactor, any plasma that leaks out will cool and return to gas in seconds.

>>10972755
>Imagine if the 11 trillion that went into the Middle-Eastern wars went into science instead....

This WOULD work. Manhattan project literally progressed mankind in nuclear energy by at least 50 years in only 5.
But the liberal politicians would stop this from happening because in their mind endlessly throwing money at poor people is the "right" thing to do before any science projects.

>>10972767
Fuck off retard

>>10972507
we got fusion power, in the sky, it's super easy, you can harvest it at home, just put solar panels on your roof

>>10972583
No they didn't.

>>10972507
Until recently we didn't have the computing power to model fusion reactions and plasma behavior well. That's why all of a sudden there are several groups that are extremely bullish about demonstrating net-positive fusion power in the next five years.

>>10972507
Now I'm no nuclear scientist so take this with a grain of salt but my understanding is that we have two main problems: sustaining the reaction for more than a few seconds at a time and containing the ludicrous amounts of heat it puts out.
Both of these problems take time and cost money to solve, hence the delays.

Fusion has been a materials science/engineering problem and not a scientific one for decades.

funding.

>>10974362

>>10972583
This literally never happened

>>10974362
Based

>>10972507
>What exactly is so difficult about fusion power that we still don't have it?
Plasma physics.

They started out fusion research thinking plasma physics wasn't even a field and plasma just chills in your magnets.
Turns out plasma physics exists, is an entire field of research and it's fucking hard as balls.

>>10972511
>anything actually good is reddit
cringe @ the hivemind attitudes

>>10972797
What's it like having 80IQ?

>>10975070
And once we figure out one type of instability another one appears just around the corner

>>10972753
>plasma rapidly expands with the force of a nuclear explosion
Why the hell would it? Neither helium nor hydrogen are unstable elements that would lead to a nuclear chain reaction.
Seriously, the worst that can happen is a hydrogen tank blowing up, which makes a nuclear fusion facility as dangerous as any other factory or lab.

>>10975094
Hey, we had space industry, we had plans for space stations and moon colonies, then liberal progressives decided that throwing endless money at welfare queens leading to generations of welfare parasites that would blindly vote for anyone who promises more gibs was a better idea than spending money on a better future.

>>10972507
>the big hurdle is
Thermal containment.
The temperatures are so high there are no materials that can hold the reaction materials.
Magnetic bottles are the best hope, but they're small - not anywhere near large enough to hold a practically/economically sustainable reaction.

>>10972507
>What is so difficult
Part of it is there's still no massive demand, there are only a few teams on the entire planet working on the problem with serious enough funding to build test systems, run them, gather data and then build a new iteration to get better. Until energy demands start getting strident there is no overwhelming need to accelerate development. The physics are complicated but increasingly well understood as more test reactors are fired up regularly and data about how their plasma behaves it collected. The primary issue is magnetic confinement so far as I know, to achieve sustained fusion the plasma has to be pressed tightly enough together that significant amounts of atoms inside of it are colliding and fusing at a rate high enough that they can keep on fusing if provided a steady supply of fresh fuel. The issue there is that plasma is super-rarefied (IE there isn't much actually there) and because it's so energetic it tends to want to fly apart and thus cool off rather than stick closer together, you can't bottle it in a solid physical object because at the densities and temperatures it needs to start fusing it would cut through any kind of metal or ceramic we know how to make as if it were practically not in the way at all. As a result the only feasible way to hold it in place and squeeze it together to allow for fusion is to hold it suspended in an enormously powerful magnetic field, as charged plasma reacts very strongly to the presence of magnetic fields. Magnets of that power are very expensive, complicated, and demand a lot of cryocooling to achieve the necessary performance, on top of that a couple of different competing groups are still trying to figure out the best configuration for squeezing the plasma as efficiently as possible, the easier it is to get the plasma confined in a tight space the less energy you have to waste on magnets and cryocooling.

>>10972753
Unlike fission, the conditions for fusion power generation are so delicate that essentially any deviation from them results in an automatic safe shutdown. This could damage the reactor casing, but it's hard to imagine any kind of serious explosion happening.

>>10975238
You should look into how NASA and the politicians controlling it botched the development of the Shuttle, and then refused to cancel the abomination for three decades because of protecting muh jerbs. This is what is to blame for the awful state of spaceflight post-Apollo, not welfare spending.

>>10975498
Fission and Fusion reactors would only see "explosions" from superheated water. You can't get a mushroom cloud from a Fission reactor.
Meltdown, certainly, but advanced fission reactor design relies on intrinsic negative feedback coefficients that the older designs simply did not care about

>>10975514
look into NASA's budget right after moon landing, as it was decreased welfare spending was increased.

We are now in a political system where there are people who live entirely on free money given as welfare (NO labor supplied) who then get to vote for politicians who offer them MORE welfare without labor.

We now have an entire political party (Democrats) that have as there number one issue how to give gibs to voters.

Science advancements are no longer advanced by politicians but by businessmen. The Billionaires of the world now push scientific progress and they will patent and copyright every thing they can as they do so.

>>10972507
What you need to understand is that there is no material on earth that is capable of withstanding the heat and pressure needed to generate and sustain fusion energy

>>10972583

>>10972507
There's nothing difficult about fusion power. The only thing keeping it from becoming the global energy source that powers humanity's growth for the next 100,000 years is government regulations. Any retarded inbred alcoholic hick can figure it out.

>>10975654
lol bullshit. that bullshit pseudoscience nonsense. Thoriumz n'sheit. And government regulations holding back humanity.

>>10975094
What's it like having 30 IQ?

>>10972551
Maybe it is just not quite "steam engine time" yet.

>>10975668
This kills the crab. Using another crab.

>>10975666
>pseudoscience
Oh, you actually think that we have the ability to hold back the heat and pressure of a sun with today's materials
>This is why we will never advance into fusion science

>>10975675
>you're serious
no.

>>10975668
What's it like having BBQ?

>>10975498
>>10975527
You can damage a fusion reactor with a rapid shutdown because it puts enormous thermal stresses on the magnets. The reactor itself will be fine but you might seriously damage some of the critical supermagnet machinery which will be a nightmare to repair or replace.

>>10975675
It's only a very, very small bit of sun.

>>10975622
>look into NASA's budget right after moon landing
The whole point was doing a big PR stunt to beat the Soviets, that's it. Everything else was purely secondary to the US government.
Once accomplished, there was no more interest in pumping piles of money into NASA.
Go back to school.

>>10972686
Anti-gravity can also be applied to deceleration of superluminal velocities. It's an FTL canceler and general quantum shield. We could use it to deploy a defense mesh around the entire solar system.

>>10972765
The absolute ideal here would be a scaling system that can utilize the energy from the fusion to turn on the magnetics that contain the reaction. From there it's just a matter of increasing the volume of the system and using the increased power to strengthen the magnetic field. Making a football stadium size area for expanded reaction is trivial, so it's really just about the scaling and throughput of the electromagnets. The simplest thing might just be to have a redundant array that redirects any escaping plasna back into the fuel intake and not try to aim for infinite scaling output.

>>10975827
Wow it sounds so simple when you put it that way. I sure am glad that people like you have been given the responsibility of saving the world.

>>10974519
Trying to make it safe and small-scale is only holding us back. We know the math works, so it's just a matter of moving the conversion barrier closer into the magnetic arrays. ANYTHING that gets us closer to 100% energy conversion helps. >>10974362 is unironically thinking in the right terms. We need to exercise biomimicry as well as physics mimicry (shape of the solar system) in as many ways as we can imagine or observe. Either go big and risk explosive failure or keep inching along with micromaterials for energy capture and conversion until someone finally has the eureka moment that puts it all together.

>>10975159
Clearly you're not thinking fourth dimensionally. If it isn't trivial to contain then you don't understand magnetics yet.
>>10975070
We should expect the physics of controlling plasma to be as complex as the entire structure of the magnetic field of the sun. "Just chills" is pretty obviously going to be contradicted by "in your magnets." EM is literally the slipperiest thing we know about.

>>10975786
Tfw the holy Grail turns out to be a factory model gravitational wave amplifier.
>So fucking gay
I could have made this shit already if I didn't waste my life exploring the Americas searching for hidden treasures. Fuck.
*Kicks over the arc of the covenant*
Shit !!!

>>10975477
>cryocooling
Can't we create a thermal duct within the plasma cord itself?

>>10972507
because relativity is not the absolute truth

>>10975837
>it sounds so simple
Read the first three words.

Absolute ideals are never easy to implement. The mythical search for the answer to all human tragedy doesn't exist because it can't be found. To understand why, you need to read that logic in its proper order, and I already gave it in its proper order. Check the contrapositives to verify its truth.

This DOESN'T mean the world can't be saved. Honestly, reading this thread, I'm convinced that fusion IS how we reach our true space age. I don't think there's any other way we'll be able to achieve it. Will probably run into a number of novel propulsion methods just from plasma physics alone.

>>10976262
Everyone's optimism regarding any positive outcome for the human race is totally crushed sooner or later. ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED. EVERYONE.
I actually miss the ignorance of my youth.

>>10976262
unless of course you're some sort of religious whacko.

Not using superior Deuterium Helium 3 fusion for the biggest potential energy and no neutrons.

Stupid Mon'Keigh.

>>10975514
>the G-men hate space
27 feet of solid concrete

>>10972654
>Fusion energy is the second most important invention mankind will ever make
no you retard, the most important technology is inmortality, once you get that you really dont care where you get energy from as long as you get it, and hteres plenty from renewables, particularly if youo dont have to worry about time.

>>10972704
>power to light up a city for a whole year with something the size of a cat.
what the fuck is that size reference? stay the fuck away from my cat>>10972710
>Fire allowed mankind to populate the world.
no you retard, that was agriculture, fire was helpful but could have been done 100% without it.

>>10972710
>Fusion allows mankind to populate the universe.
we could populate the universe with current technology. just make a bunch of very robust seed ships powered by an orion drive.

>>10972507
I think what you are asking for is 'cold fusion' which we have nothing but theories about for now. Fusion requires an incredible amount of energy and the sun has enough energy to do fusion but we do not hold the suns energy do we? We have no way of gathering and concentrating enough energy for hot fusion at the moment and we have no idea if cold fusion is really possible.

If we achieve fusion here on Earth, whether hot or cold, I believe it will be the most important thing man has made since fire. Not just for energy, but for creating elements we lack out of abundant elements or even creating new, undiscovered elements.....

>>10976307
Sustained (familiar) immortality still requires fusion because you're a star-parasite as it is. If you can't compress your entire ecosystem into a device that you can carry around, then you aren't really immortal. Not in any useful way.

>>10972710
Wow. So catchy. I think you could totally sell that to a bunch of drooling retards.

>>10976245

>>10976307
>>Fusion energy is the second most important invention mankind will ever make
>no you retard, the most important technology is inmortality, once you get that you really dont care where you get energy from as long as you get it, and hteres plenty from renewables, particularly if youo dont have to worry about time.

No. immortality sounds nice, but it reality nature has shown repeatedly over and over again that when a species becomes immortal it dies. An immortal species has no way to modify itself to changing environments.

At what stage would a human stop aging for immortality? 12, 20, 120???


>>Fire allowed mankind to populate the world.
>no you retard, that was agriculture, fire was helpful but could have been done 100% without it.


Mankind had already populated the planet (using fire) LONG before agriculture.


>>>10972710
>>Fusion allows mankind to populate the universe.
>we could populate the universe with current technology. just make a bunch of very robust seed ships powered by an orion drive.

I suppose you COULD. You CAN skip important tech steps but it is harder than fuck. North and South Americans never did figure out the wheel as the old world did, but somehow they built rather advanced civilizations.

>>10976360

>Hurr, subsapient species need evolution to adapt to their environment, so sapient species with mastery over their genetics should refuse immortality.

What? We can use our brains to adapt to our environments and upgrade as neccessary.

>>10972694
There is a company called helion energy, rumor has it they are genuinely close. Keep your ear to thr ground over the next 2 to 3 years.

>>10976377
>We can use our brains to adapt
This is physically false. Intelligence gives us nothing more than leverage over our environment. All the sci-fi shit we consider requires actual resources to be assembled. Individual immortality is literally bad for our development.

>>10972753
HAHAHAHA oh my word, no. Fusion is a fragile unstable process. If the reactor broke open for some reason, a small amount of plasma would rapidly expand and cool into an essentially harmless gas with perhaps a small amount of radioactivity. all that is needed to contain such an incident is a simple concrete shell and good air scrubbers

>>10976278
Look up helion energy my dude.

>>10976393

What the fuck does this mean? Are you having a stroke?

We didn't evolve to fly at 50,000 feet. We didn't evolve to live in the Arctic Circle or the deserts of Arizona. We used our brains and we can change our bodies as necessary.

Leverage over our environment IS how we assemble resources. Intelligence is better than evolution in every way. And immortality makes us even stronger. No more geniuses dying young. Education no longer takes up 10-20% of a lifespan. Vast resources are freed up in healthcare and pensions.

>>10972732
My uni has not matsci, but they do have one of the only Plastics Engineering programs in the US. Would it be possible for me to go on to matsci grad school if I majored in Plastics Eng?

>>10976441
>We used our brains
Yes, as brains. Physically, we didn't use them as anything else.
>we can change our bodies
That has yet to become necessary for the growth of human knowledge. You're obviously passionate about immortality, but this is not the thread for that. At a systems level (which is the one that's assembling all the resources you (or {any AI} reading >this<) use) immortality gives us no advantage toward continued growth of an economic factor correlating with scientific innovation or discovery. Piecemeal improvements work better at an economic level so (in terms of resource assembly) make more sense in terms of maximizing scientific output over a finite duration. Your math only works if we assume that the space between quantum leaps is effectively infinite in duration. Break even first is how life works.

>>10976482

Didn't you read my post?

>No economic growth

Immortality gives us more manpower, more brainpower and preserves that brainpower for longer. Population growth will rise dramatically. There will be more time for the educated STEM-wielder to use their talent.

We free up huge amounts of money for investment. No more pension, no more healthcare for the aged.

Immortality is nothing BUT increased scientific innovation and discovery.

>>10976616
>Population growth
This has always been fueled by the drive to survive. Immortality stems that desire entirely. If we can philosophize our way into not needing to die, then everything else, all the culture we had built upon having a civilization that outlasts the death of the individual, will be reset. There's no meaning talking about how money would work—would we even need it in that case? Or economic flow, or investment, or literally anything else that is familiar to us now. Moreover, you haven't cited a method. Mind uploading is death to some, immortality to others.

I'll be frank about this because I already told you that this is not the thread to debate why you're wrong about the logistics of immortality.

Your life is not worth fusion technology. 20 of you isn't worth standing in the way of a single scientific discovery.

>>10972654
>THEN the first generation reactors will be built around 2050.

This is extremely amusing, because SimCity 2000 has commercial fusion power plants for sale, but not until 2050!

>>10976654

Fusion is insanely dangerous for obvious reasons. That being said, and I believe this unironically, the future of energy on Earth will follow this general flow:

1. The creation of cheap, reusable, reliable rockets
2. The advancement of robotics technology
3. The advancement of artificial intelligence
4. The establishment of a moonbase
5. The advancement of fusion technology using human like robots on the moon

Once fusion is achieved, the advancement of several other technologies that enable cheap trips to the moon and back mean it will be practical and cost effective to only perform fusion on the moon. Moreover, with fusion we get access to many of the rare elements needed to make large scale energy storage using batteries possible, and thus our energy problems are solved and we never have to live with the threat of nuclear destruction on Earth. Batteries with enough energy to power the Earth for decades will be transported to and from moon.

If you’re involved in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science at the moment, your fields will be exploding very soon as these developments occur. Be ready.

>>10976630

You are very wrong in many interesting ways. If you can't understand basic logic, you really shouldn't be discussing nuclear energy.

>survival

People don't want fusion to survive. They want it to get rich, to be higher in complex status networks that are independent of mortality. Your philosophy is fantastically ignorant: why did we bother inventing the car, the train, steam power? We don't need much to survive and yet we have a lot. Think about what you're saying for a few seconds.

Life extension is important. If we can stop telomeres unravelling, if we can cure genetic diseases and prevent mental illnesses, this will make us hugely richer and free up vast amounts of resources. Biological immortality is the simplest and probably easiest method. Mind-uploads are obviously more efficient, since you can copy as necessary but they don't come under the classical definition.

>My life isn't worth fusion tech.

Well, congratulations on saying something true. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. But immortality makes everything else easier, as does cheap fusion. More energy and more brainpower go together like peas in a pod.

>>10976701
>Fusion is insanely dangerous for obvious reasons
Like what?

>>10977301
>>Fusion is insanely dangerous for obvious reasons

Not him, but fusion allows large-scale space travel. Large-scale space travel means asteroid manipulation or high-speed ramming, making nukes look like firecrackers.

In your average sci-fi universe where any old idiot has a ship, the truck rampage equivalent kills several billion people.

>>10972511
Of all the normie targeting popsci shit out there, you're REEEing at the least offensive one.

>>10977422
Yeah, no. We're not 30 years away from boiler sized fusion generators that you can buy at Walmart.

well all that's left to do is to act like nice guys until then.

>>10972792
[citation needed]
sounds like a lot since EM is so strong:

Take 1 mg of hydrogen, separate the protons into one pile and the electrons in another.
Separate the piles from each other by 1 km.
The piles still attract each other with a force of about 83.7 MN. That is comparable to the weight of the Eiffel tower.

>>10977427

How do you know that for sure? It was about 40 years from General Relativity to Hiroshima. Things creep up on you quickly. The history of science is full of sudden change.

Say we make an AGI next week, would you change your assumptions? Say the US starts a war with China and uses those weird UFO things that've been caught loads of times on radar?

What if cheap fusion is easy but it's being covered up BECAUSE it's really dangerous? What if you could make a giant heatpump bomb for under a million dollars?

Maybe the Russians have cheap fusion but don't want to reveal it lest they lose their oil exports.

>>10977456
What if shitposting is easy but it's being covered?
- sounds great

>>10977422
there's nothing that fusion will do for your space craft that fission won't

>>10972704
>We could extract enough power to light up a city for a whole year with something the size of a cat
Is it a cat?

>>10972762
There's not enough physics and engineering work for the number of qualified people.

>>10974362

>what is industry
>what is baseload
>what is consistency

>>10972754

not maths or science

>>10975233
>the worst that can happen is a hydrogen tank blowing up

>>10977422
No because any reasonable civilization will delete your space truck with petawatt laser arrays on violation of traffic rules.

>>10972583
To be fair, back in mid 50th physicists felt like demigods. In 20 years they went from splitting the atom to making it into a weapon to supplying this energy for a commercial usage, to making even more dangerous version of weapons. Surely no problem can be too difficult, and fire of gods can be brought down to people in a few more year, decades at worst.

>>10976441
You are going to get older and older and then die. Eventually you will be forgotten.

It's just hyper-accelerated toroidial perpetual motion. Not that big a fuckin' deal.

>>10972754
Be born rich and get any degree at an ivy league. Make sure you network. If you have to ask in 4chin you ain't gonna make it kiddo

>>10978003
>>10978280
This. I was gonna say MBA or economics. Certainly has to be some useless political parasite degree that gives you the power to allocate funds.

>>10972704
>the size of a cat
Dead or alive?

>>10972507
It's really hard to make a hot, fast, dense plasma without using more energy than you get out of it. It's even harder to keep the device you use to do it with from breaking in short order. It's also really expensive to make these devices and people aren't willing to drop 100M for funsies.

/sci/ talks about some meme tech which might never work ...
... meanwhile everybody else is already harvesting fusion power

>>10979982
The market finds a way. Believeth and ye shall become content and bloated feasting on the vast energy resources.

t. money priest

It is not possible to properly model plasma until we have a functional turbulence model.
Doesn't help that mathtards are working on imaginary shit instead of shit that matters

>>10980154
How much plasma physics will be involved in a commercial generator? Will they need "plasma engineers" or will operators just need to look at a page full of numbers?

>>10972507
Nothing really. Just need to get over crippling the oil industry which in turn controls economy which controls people's lives.

Fusion energy at this point is kind of obsolete and zero point is more of a thing. Direct access to the energy matrix which holds the universe together, energy from thin air.

>>10972507
The main problems are plasma containment and plasma heating. I'm not very well versed in the former, but substantially if you don't want your reactors wall to melt you want the plasma confined thanks to magnetic fields (inertial confinement it's also a thing but not studied as much) and for this there is a discussion between tokamak configuration (a donut) or stellaretor configuration (a twisted donut). Also fuck banana trajectory (one of the most researched aspects for magnetic confinement).
On the heating side of the matter, we don't have the mass of the sun at hand) so instead of measly 10 Million degree we need 100 instead, since it's the temperature needed for the fusion.
There are three method:
Particle injections
Radiofrequency Waves coupling
Ohmic heating
With the first one being the one that should us bring to the desired temperature. Again, this ain't easy, since you need to calibrate the energy to efficiently transfer the energy to the plasma.
I'd say, from people I know that worked on the iter project, we won't get it working until 10 years if we're lucky. And just the first prototype.

>>10972654
>Fusion energy is the second most important invention mankind will ever make (Fire is number one).
Nope. The second is AI or rather the computers in general. Third will be fusion.

>>10980166
All of it. Yes we needed plasma engineers three years ago.

>>10980721
>from thin air
We need to get to space before then or we'll rot our atmosphere in that case. Every physical transaction has a cost. You can never truly prove that you're not skating a false vacuum.

>>10980761
I don't know the current state of magnetics engineering, but it is possible to have a spherical manifold with a meta-stable dip in its center? My idea is basically to have a central field that superheats the plasma, destabilizing the innermost magnetic shell and spraying it outwards into the cooler sphere of plasma. The entire reaction could self-sustain if we can find a topology of plasma field that circulates the hottest plasma back into the central sphere during its reformation phase.

>>10980721
>zero point energy
You fookin wot m8? You retarded or something?