does anyone think we'll ever manage to harness the power of fusion?

Question

if you do, let me in on it! Man, you could get rich.

Answer 1

In a word yes.
There are several know routes towards controlled fusion all of which have technical hurdles but at least one of them should be possible.
The most likely methods are:

1) Magnetic confinement, the best bet so far and gives plasma physicists (like me) loads of fun stuff to consider. Keep the fusing plasma rotating around within a tube by using a carefully controlled set of magnetic fields. All civilian projects are working on this method.

2) Inertial confinement, squash fusable stuff by blasting it with lasers. This one certainly works but so far nobody has been able to make lasers efficient enough to run on less power than is produced by the fusion. The military do most of the work on this because it is a good way to learn about bomb physics.

3) Mirror confinement, bounce stuff back and forward. Once the favorite but hit problems and is currently relegated to 3rd place.

There has been loads of press about cold fusion but none of it actually worked. Fusion is well understood and any Deuterium/Tritium fusion that produces meaningfull energy in a glass bottle would produce so many neutrons that it would be trivial to detect ( dead experimenters would be one sign ).

Wikkipedia has an excellent article on fusion, I will give you a link to the current version because it is one of those subjects that uninformed people tend to mess up all the time.

Answer 2

How about this...

"Fusion power is safe, sustainable power generated by nuclear fusion reactions. In this kind of reaction two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus and release energy. The largest current experiment, JET, has resulted in fusion power production somewhat larger than the power put into the plasma, maintained for a few seconds. In June 2005, the construction of the experimental reactor ITER, designed to produce several times more fusion power than the power into the plasma over many minutes, was announced. The production of net electrical power from fusion is planned for the next generation experiment after ITER."

The question is, how do you control the same power that powers the sun?

Answer 3

In the way we think we will (via a giant sun-like sphere)? Probably not. Likely fusion will mostly be done with ringed electromagnetic accelerators (kind of the way the sun does it according to the electric model of the sun; that is to say NOT the internally fusion-powered model, which makes no sense in light of modern evidence of low neutrino counts, colder inside than outside, etc. etc.).

Efficiently (producing more energy than it takes to operate the reactor)? Doubtful.

With no byproduct (radiactive garbage)? Definitely not... Too many neutrons are ejected and would irradiate the nearby material (IE walls of the reaction chamer, etc.), seeing as neutrons interact weakly if at all with magnetic fields, so there's no real way to avoid this. At least from the reading I've done a bit of. Granted I'm not a physicist...

Answer 4

We have, haven't we? The hydrogen bomb works on fusion.
But I assume that by "harness", you mean that we use it creatively rather than destructively, in which case we will if we live long enough.
There's a chamber being build right now for the study of fusion called NIF, and it's very sci-fi; spherical and will shoot lasers into the center to drive the hydrogen fusion reaction.
"However, the device's main roles will be fusion power experiments and exploring the science/physics underlying nuclear weapons for the United States."
This should be ready by 2010.
Also:
"ITER is an international tokamak (magnetic confinement fusion) experiment, planned to be built in France and designed to show the scientific and technological feasibility of a full-scale fusion power reactor. "
This should be ready by 2016.
Another reactor in China is already completed and should be tested very soon.
"EAST is to conduct its initial test discharge sometime during July and August 2006. The first experiments of the reactor will be to create an ohmic plasma. Scientists will study the properties of this type of plasma for further research in the field of plasma physics."
There is still hope for humanity. Also plasma is AWESOME!

Answer 5

All we can do is RELEASE its power. A Hydrogen Bomb is a Fusion device. There have been some attempts at Cold Fusion but I don't think they have been successful yet. Theoretically it should be possible, we just don't have the knowledge to accomplish this.

Answer 6

Yep! Its all about when we can produce a viable source of power that produces more than it consumes. You already have lots of detailed plasma confinement answers (mostly) accurate. Take a look a FOCUS FUSION projects on the net for ideas of the shortest timescales.

Answer 7

We will... We can already produce enough heat and pressure to make a reaction occur. The hard part if figuring out how to contain it. The most promising technology thus far is using strong magnetic fields as an envelope to hold it.

When is viable... I don't know.

Answer 8

man i wish i knew how to harness he power of fusion... i wanna b richer than bill gates = P an have my own casino

Answer 9

I imagine that we will succeed some day, but the problems are very difficult. People have been working on this for decades, and we are nowhere near a solution.

Answer 10

sure...so far we've been accomplishing the impossible, so I don't see why harnessing fusion should be any different.