Nuclear fusion reaction releases almost twice the energy put in

throwaway389430@lemmy.cafe to News@lemmy.world – 629 points –
Nuclear fusion reaction releases almost twice the energy put in
newscientist.com
376

You are viewing a single comment

At some point we'll be able to say: ...and thus, humanity created its first star.

...and accidentally incinerated its home world, as the supply dependant lunar colony could only look on in horror.

✨The End✨

I know you're joking, but nuclear fusion is inherently safe because if it breaks there is no way to sustain a chain reaction. And is only creates mildly radioactive byproducts. So you could blow it up and it wouldn't seriously contaminate the area.

Not only are the radioactive byproducts not that dangerous (everything is relative of course). But also they have incredibly short half lives so they go away long before the firefighters turned up.

Technically fission has a similar physical barrier to infinite meltdown. Once the water leaves the core, the reaction stops. It was called China Syndrome, and we wouldn't have worried about it at all, had the physicist that thought it up been a bit more competent with his math skills. Unfortunately, there are plenty of other ways that the reactors that we currently use can catastrophically fail.

When they do they should come up with some original quote.

"The power of the sun in the palm of my hand", something like that.

At least they won't be in danger of falling flat on the ground, halfway through their Big Words, due to muscle atrophy, the way every single other "first person on ______" is gonna have

"That's one small trip and fall for a human, one giant faceplant for mankind."