this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Given the up-front cost of any kind of reactor, I don’t think the concept of a usage-based electric bill goes away as long as it’s corporations competing for customers. Maybe eventually it would be like ISPs where it’s a flat fee depending on the size of your connection. I guess it could be totally unmetered then.

Like so many things, it gets a lot simpler if it’s the government supplying the service.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not too cheap to meter even when provided as a public service. Nuclear is more expensive than battery + solar, more expensive than wind, more expensive than coal

"Too cheap to meter" was a lie that ignored costs of safety and decommissioning.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I agree, and you still hear that BS about fusion power, that it will be an unlimited source of cheap/free clean energy.

I guess I could imagine scenarios where power is not metered and is supported via taxes, maybe in a scenario where citizens have a right to energy just like a right to healthcare. It’s not free by any means, but the people who make the most money and thus benefit the most from the infrastructure end up paying into it the most. And the truly poor would get free (to them) electricity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I really wonder about fusion. Most of the news of energy production higher than energy input is about non-electricity fusion - the big tokamak fusion systems are not yet producing more power than they take to run, but scientists working on them are expecting good results soon

Like when I was a kid fusion was 20 years away and would always be 20 years away. Now it looks like it'll be 5 years away for a while

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I like to follow fusion news whenever I see it, and I think the situation might be even worse than you’re describing, lol.

The news about ignition and/or more energy out than in, that refers to the energy actually delivered to the sample versus the full energy released from the sample. So it doesn’t include all the energy needed to charge and fire the lasers that was lost along the way. And like you said, it’s the thermal power they’re measuring, and you lose a huge amount of that power when converting to electricity.

I think we’re still firmly in the “fusion is 20/30 years away” cycle.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm hanging out for when ITER is operational. There's every chance it runs at or just over 1:1

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Oh yeah, I think ITER is supposed to have a Q of like 10, so maybe they can produce a net gain system-wide.